UK may deploy troops to quell fighting in Sudan’s Darfur
By SIMON TISDALL
LONDON, Nov 10, 2004 (The Guardian) — Britain could be asked to contribute troops to a 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force for Sudan under a draft resolution being discussed in the security council, government officials in London indicated yesterday.
The proposal for a UN force is part of a British package of incentives designed to gain Sudan’s agreement to a comprehensive settlement of the conflict in Darfur, in western Sudan.
The UN says fighting in Darfur has claimed the lives of 70,000 people since March. A further 1.5 million people have fled their homes as a result of the violence pitting militias, known as Janjaweed, against two rebel groups, the Sudan-ese Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement.
The security council passed two resolutions this year in an attempt to halt the conflict, threatening the Khartoum government with sanctions if it failed to rein in the Janjaweed. But recent reports have suggested the situation is deteriorating.
Speaking at the Foreign Office, Chris Mullin, the minister responsible for Africa, said Khartoum had demonstrated “reasonable cooperation” with international efforts to stem the Darfur fighting but it was “still not a very good situation”.
Asked whether Britain would send troops to Sudan as part of the proposed UN force, as Tony Blair appeared to suggest earlier this year, Mr Mullin declined to rule it out saying it was “premature” to comment at this time.
Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, said the UN resolution, drafted by Britain, was under discussion and would be presented to an extraordinary security council meeting to be held in Nairobi on November 18-19.
The meeting, convened in Kenya at the request of the US, would focus on Darfur and the long-running talks between Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, he said.
“The draft resolution is the carrot,” Sir Emyr said.
“We are saying that if you [the Sudanese government] get your act together to get a stable state and live together, then this is what we can contribute: a major peacekeeping operation by the UN, humanitarian relief, law and order, help with infrastructure and establishing the rule of law and democratic structures.”
He said the resolution, if agreed, would support addi-tional deployments of African Union troops, with monitoring duties as now but possibly as peacekeepers with wider powers. And it could dangle the prospect of an inter-national aid donors’ conference for Sudan.
The aim was to show Sudan’s leaders that “the international community will stand by Sudan but only if it behaves”, he said. He said the possibility of sanctions remained if Khar-toum failed to reach a settlement.
“Sanctions are held as a latent threat,” he said, poised over the heads of both the government and the rebels. He added any punitive measures would be “smart sanctions”, targeting financial assets and the foreign travel of officials, rather than ordinary Sudanese.
He appeared to rule out curbs on Sudan’s oil exports, which would almost certainly be opposed in the security council by China, one of Sudan’s biggest customers.
Britain’s special represen-tative for Sudan, Alastair McPhail, said peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria, over Darfur were making progress, with agreement reached in principle on humanitarian and security protocols.
It was also hoped that the Nairobi meeting would be a catalyst for a peace accord in the south, he said.
The latest British proposals to break the impasse over Darfur came at a critical moment. UN World Food Programme officials in the region said yesterday that violence in the past month had deprived 175,000 people of emergency food supplies and driven 150,000 people from their homes.
The International Red Cross said last month that villages throughout Darfur faced “an unprecedented food crisis” that was worse than the famines of the 1980s.