The government of Chad has refused to allow the United Nations to send an advance mission to prepare for the possible deployment of UN peacekeepers, a setback to plans to help thousands of civilians caught in the spill-over of the Darfur conflict in Sudan.
At the same time, the UN Security Council cannot start deploying about 3 000 troops, police and civilians to beef up the 7 000-strong African Union force on the ground in Darfur because a letter from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir supporting the deployment, which was supposedly sent last week, still hasn’t arrived.
The problems in both countries were raised during a closed Security Council meeting where Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s envoy, Jan Eliasson, briefed members on UN and AU efforts to get all rebel groups into peace negotiations.
Eliasson warned afterwards that ”this is growing into a regional conflict” and the uneasy Chad-Sudan relationship will be crucial in solving it.
The Security Council generally supports deploying a UN force in Chad and the Central African Republic to protect civilians who have fled fighting and to monitor borders in order to reduce cross-border attacks. It wanted to send an advance mission with about 35 military liaison officers and 40 police to prepare for a larger deployment.
But Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno has expressed concerns about the deployment of a UN military force.
Chad and the Central African Republic have faced attacks from rebels in their own countries as well as the spill-over of the Darfur conflict in neighbouring Sudan.
The UN has also been stymied in putting a UN force or a hybrid UN-AU force on the ground in Darfur because of strong opposition from al-Bashir. Last Friday, Sudan’s UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem said the president was sending a letter to Ban expressing his commitment to the second step of a three-stage UN plan for Darfur.
South Africa’s UN Ambassador, Dumisani Kumalo, the current Security Council president, said ”there’s a lot of frustration among council members about progress not happening” — including the arrival of al-Bashir’s letter.
Sudan agreed in November to a three-stage UN plan that would culminate in a 22 000-strong joint UN-AU peacekeeping mission. But in January, al-Bashir said UN troops were not required in Darfur because the AU force on the ground could maintain order.
The first stage of the UN plan — a ”light support” package adding some equipment, military officers and UN police to the AU operation — is nearly complete.
Al-Bashir’s letter will make a commitment to the deployment of the second phase, a ”heavy support” package that includes sending more than 3 000 UN military, police and civilian personnel, along with substantial aviation and logistical assets to Darfur. Until it is received, the personnel and equipment can’t be deployed.
UN Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi said a new UN and AU review concluded that the hybrid force should be slightly larger — between 19 000 and 20 000 troops, 3 700 police officers and about 2 000 police in units. He said letters about the new estimate were being sent to al-Bashir and AU chief executive Alpha Oumar Konare.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said the five permanent Security Council members, who discussed Darfur on Tuesday afternoon, want the three-phase UN plan ”put in place as soon as possible.”
”We want to see a political process in Sudan and Darfur actually succeed,” he said. ”We want humanitarian access guaranteed and the assistance delivered, and then, crucially, the security of the people of Darfur has to be assured.”
Eliasson, the UN envoy, said ”We need the peacekeeping presence to speed up the political process — and vice versa.” — Sapa-AP