Sudan may okay deployment of UN-African Union force in Darfur: Annan

AFP Friday December 22, 05:59 PM
By Gerard Aziakou


UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Departing UN chief Kofi Annan said that Khartoum may give its green light Saturday for the deployment of a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force in Darfur and for a full ceasefire in the strife-torn Sudanese region.

In his last address to the Security Council, he said Friday reports from the special envoy he sent to Khartoum "encourage me to think we may tomorrow receive a green light from (Sudanese) President (Omar) al-Beshir for a full ceasefire...and deployment of the proposed hybrid African Union (AU)-United Nations force to protect the (Darfur) population."

Annan, who is relinquishing his post on December 31 after 10 years in office, said Beshir might also endorse a "renewed effort to bring all (Darfur) parties into the political process."

Annan's emissary Ahmadou Ould Abdallah delivered a letter from the UN chief to Beshir in Khartoum Wednesday. The envoy was dispatched in a bid to break the deadlock between Khartoum and the international community on the issue of peacekeeping in Darfur.

The outgoing Ghanaian secretary general said last month that Sudan had accepted a three-phase UN plan to support for the embattled AU contingent that should eventually lead to the creation of a joint UN-AU peacekeeping force.

But a Beshir adviser reiterated Thursday that Khartoum had so far only accepted the first two phases, which provide for UN technical and logistical assistance.

"After so many disappointments I take nothing for granted," Annan told the council. "What I do know is that the Council will continue to work, ably helped by my successor (South Korea's Ban Ki-moon), on these and many other crises."

Wednesday US presidential envoy Andrew Natsios warned that Sudan faces a January 1 deadline to accept UN peacekeepers in Darfur or face coercive international action to halt violence in the region.

He said he told Sudanese leaders in Khartoum last week they must allow an initial group of 60 UN peacekeeping staff currently "marooned" in the Sudanese capital to deploy to Darfur by year's end.

Natsios also must "accept in writing" Annan's plan to place to shore up the 7,000-strong, ill-equipped AU force in Darfur with several thousand UN troops.

But Beshir has so far consistently rejected such an option, accusing the United States of seeking to invade his country and plunder its resources.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese army said Thursday it killed 200 rebels while repelling an attack in Darfur, the deadliest single military operation reported there since fighting started there four years ago.

The conflict erupted in February 2003 when ethnic minority rebels complaining of marginalisation launched an uprising, which was fiercely repressed by government troops and allied militias.

A peace deal was signed in May between the government and the main rebel faction from the Sudan Liberation Movement, but the two other negotiating factions -- including rebels who later formed the NRF -- rejected the agreement, which has failed to take hold.

According to the United Nations, at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effect of war and famine since fighting erupted almost four years ago in Darfur.


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(AFP JOURNAL INTERNET)