The United Nations expects Sudan to permit a UN force to use attack helicopters, completing a deal to bolster the 7 000 African Union troops in Darfur, the British ambassador said on Thursday.
The UN is nearing agreement with Khartoum to add about 3 000 UN military personnel and equipment to the African Union force but Sudan has objected to fielding six attack helicopters. It also has not agreed to the next stage of an AU-UN operation of more than 20 000 troops and police.
British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, this month’s UN Security Council president, said briefings from UN officials looked positive on the interim plan, known as the heavy support package.
”We are now looking for final confirmation that the six attack helicopters could be accepted,” Jones Parry said. ”And if, as we are promised, that is forthcoming in the next couple of days, then we have the heavy support package in its entirety.”
The next step would be to ask the General Assembly’s finance committee to fund the operation after assurances that the plan was agreed, he said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier told reporters: ”There seems to be some misunderstandings on the part of the Sudanese government” on the UN helicopters.
”This peacekeeping is itself by definition a peacekeeping operation — it is not for any offensive” purposes, Ban said.
Ban said that the deployment of troops required mobility and deterrence in case they were attacked. ”This is just standard equipment about which they should have no concern.”
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who met Ban at an Arab League summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last month, has opposed troops on the ground from anywhere but Africa.
Others, he said, could participate in command centres and help with logistics.
Ban emphasised that the force commander and his deputy would be Africans. ”Therefore, I hope there should be no such concern. We will continue to alleviate such concerns.”
Sanctions less likely?
The underfinanced and underequipped AU force has been unable to stop violence in Darfur, where at least 200 000 people have been killed and 2,5-million forced to flee their homes, many to arid camps.
Fighting began four years ago among the Arab-dominated government and militia who support them and African rebels, and it has spilled into neighbouring Chad.
Ban noted that he was chairing a high-level consultation in New York on Monday and Tuesday with AU chief executive Alpha Oumar Konare and the two envoys trying to fashion a peace accord: Jan Eliasson for the United Nations and Salim Ahmed Salim for the African Union.
Because of the ongoing talks, Ban last week asked the United States and Britain to delay a draft resolution imposing sanctions on Sudan in the UN Security Council as well as bilateral penalties Washington has drawn up. Both have agreed.
But diplomats said the near-completion of the interim plan would make several council members, who had qualms about sanctions, even more hesitant in moving ahead.
The proposed UN sanctions are expected to include an arms embargo, financial or travel bans on targeted individuals and institutions, and some monitoring of military overflights in Darfur, diplomats said. Among new US bilateral sanctions is putting another 29 Sudanese companies on a blacklist. – Reuters