The United States and Britain plan to push for a vote on a United Nations resolution sending peacekeeping troops to Darfur, despite a fresh rejection by Sudan on Tuesday of any deployment of UN troops there.
The US and British sponsored resolution would authorise the deployment of 20 000 UN troops and police in Darfur to take over from about 7 000 African Union troops, who have been unable to end bloodshed in the western Sudanese region.
Though the resolution, likely to be put to a vote on Thursday, would state that Sudan would need to agree to the deployment, it was expected to add pressure on Khartoum to drop its opposition to UN peacekeeping troops.
”Our judgement here is that we think we’ve found a formulation that would win acceptance on the [Security] Council,” US Ambassador John Bolton told reporters at the UN.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer also made a fresh plea on Tuesday to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to agree to UN troops, though her meeting with him in Khartoum ended without any sign of progress.
In Washington, State Department spokesperson Tom Casey told reporters Frazer had delivered a message from President George Bush that Sudan needed to accept a UN force in Darfur.
”She made a very clear case of what US policy is and he certainly listened to what she had to say,” he said.
Frazer cancelled all meetings with the media, which one Sudanese official said was because she had ”nothing new to report”. She had waited nearly two days to meet Bashir.
Bashir on Tuesday reiterated his opposition to the deployment of UN troops, instead praising the AU troops in Darfur in a speech. ”We are not calling for confrontation or war but we are calling for peace and stability,” he said.
His comments followed a decision by Sudan to boycott UN Security Council talks on Monday on Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and 2,5-million forced from their homes since a revolt began in early 2003.
Mark Malloch Brown, deputy UN secretary general, told CNN that Bashir’s rejection did not mean the issue was over.
”I don’t think we can accept the door is closed to UN troops [in Darfur]. The Security Council is determined to get us there. … But the fact is very real that the threshold we have to get over is Sudanese diplomatic acceptance of our deployment. We’ve got to win their agreement,” he said.
He said before any UN forces could be deployed, AU troops must be strengthened by more funding, more troops and improved leadership.
Sudan has likened the deployment of UN troops in Darfur to a Western invasion that it says would attract militants and cause an Iraq-style quagmire.
But analysts say Khartoum objects because it fears UN troops would arrest any officials or militia leaders likely to be indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
Sudan has however already agreed to the deployment of UN troops in southern Sudan monitoring a separate peace deal there, raising hopes that it might eventually drop its opposition to UN troops in the west of the country.
Security Council members China and Russia have traditionally resisted any talk of imposing sanctions on Khartoum to force it to accept UN troops.
Casey said Bashir would send an envoy to Washington to reply directly to Bush’s message, which according to one US official had included incentives if Sudan accepted a UN force.
Casey declined to comment on the contents of the message.
Despite a peace deal signed by one of three rebel negotiating factions in May, violence has increased in Darfur. – Reuters