The United Nations has not given up on sending its own troops to reinforce a peacekeeping force in Darfur, despite strong Sudanese opposition, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters in Nairobi, Annan also described the situation on Sudan’s border with Chad as ”very fragile and volatile” and said the UN might post observers there.
The African Union has 7 000 troops in Darfur, where about 200 000 people have died in three years of violence and more than 2,5-million have fled their homes — many into Chad.
”We are looking at the possibility of putting UN observers or some sort of international presence on the border and working with Chad’s government to ensure refugees there are protected and cross-border attacks are minimised,” Annan said.
”But we have not given up the idea of strengthening the force in Darfur.”
The UN hopes to reinforce the AU force with hundreds of peacekeepers and technical support, eventually forming a large ”hybrid” force under joint command. Sudan has rejected that, insisting that the AU must remain in charge.
Annan will take part in high level talks on the Darfur crisis on Thursday in Ethiopia.
”We need to continue our efforts to calm Darfur and try to stabilise the situation, get assistance to the internally displaced people and gain access for the humanitarian workers, while we press ahead with the implementation of the political process,” Annan said.
The under-equipped and over-stretched AU force has struggled to protect civilians in the huge Darfur region from repeated attack, and its mandate expires on December 31.
The conflict broke out in 2003 when local people, mostly non-Arabs, took up arms to fight for a greater share of power and resources. The government then backed Arab militia known as Janjaweed, who have pillaged, raped and killed.
Fighting spreads
Fighting between the government and Darfur rebels has spilled into both Chad and the Central African Republic.
Annan has invited officials from the UN Security Council’s permanent members to Thursday’s talks in Addis Ababa, along with others from Egypt, Gabon, the European Union and the Arab League.
The AU has also asked Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa to attend.
Jean-Marie Guehenno, the UN undersecretary general for peacekeeping, said on Tuesday Sudan was insisting the AU remain in charge of the force in Darfur and had rejected the idea of a joint command.
According to his speaking notes to a closed meeting of the Security Council, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir was generally supportive of the ”lighter option” of UN assistance to the AU Mission, known as Amis.
But Bashir ”insisted that UN military and police personnel deployed in support of Amis should wear ‘green’ — i.e. Amis berets, which will not be acceptable to the United Nations”, Guehenno said.
But he added that Khartoum was willing to discuss UN support units to Amis and a greater UN role in the political aspects of the crisis.
In Washington, a senior State Department official urged Sudan to accept the ”hybrid offer”.
”The proposal goes a long way to meeting the Sudanese government’s stated concerns about a UN force,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. — Reuters