United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that the new 26 000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur ”is at risk” unless it gets 24 critically needed helicopters and he appealed again to all countries for help.
”While helicopters alone cannot ensure the success of the mission, their absence may well doom it to failure,” Ban said in a letter on Thursday urging Security Council members to use their influence to transform international concern for Darfur into ”the tangible provision” of aircraft.
With only three weeks left before the new UN-African Union force is scheduled to start deploying, the secretary general also went before journalists to lament the UN’s failure to get a commitment for even one helicopter, which he called ”a matter of political will”.
Ban said the 18 transport helicopters and six light tactical helicopters are essential for ”an effective, robust force”.
”Without mobility and transportation, it will be extremely difficult for us to deploy our forces, and even [if] they are deployed, without effective, efficient mobility and capacity we will not be able to protect the civilians and even our own soldiers,” he said.
The secretary general stressed that rebel leaders will not join the peace process without an effective peacekeeping force.
”But for this we need on-the-ground capability — specifically helicopters. We are not getting them. Because of that the entire mission is at risk,” he said.
The conflict in Sudan’s western Darfur region has claimed more than 200 000 lives and uprooted 2,5-million people since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003.
Critics accuse Sudan of arming the janjaweed Arab militias that have terrorised Darfur villages — a charge Khartoum denies.
Ban said he had personally contacted every potential helicopter contributor — from industrialised and major developing countries — ”to no avail”.
He said he is sending two high-level envoys to a European Union-African summit in Lisbon, Portugal this weekend ”to directly engage with as many key leaders as possible on this subject”.
”We are at the critical moment for Darfur,” the secretary general said. ”Member states have spoken clearly about what must be done. It is time for them to walk their talk.”
Ban said Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet and his Deputy Chief of Staff Kim Won-soo, who were leaving New York on Thursday night, would also press Sudan’s leaders to accept non-Africans in the AU-UN force and resolve a host of administrative, technical and military issues regarding the deployment.
The UN Security Council agreed that the force should be predominantly African — at Sudan’s insistence. But Khartoum has refused to approve non-African units from Thailand, Nepal and the Nordic countries, even though 90% of the ground troops and 75% of the proposed force are from Africa.
Ban said he would be sending a personal letter to Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir with the envoys.
Sudan’s UN ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, said the UN delegation will meet Sudan’s foreign minister and if time permits, the president, to discuss UN concerns about the deployment of the AU-UN force.
Mohamad stressed that Sudan is committed to ”dialogue and transparency” and would ”deliver on our commitments”.
In a letter to Ban obtained by the Associated Press, the ambassador addressed some problems raised last week by UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno who warned that the Sudanese government was putting up numerous obstacles which could destroy the force’s effectiveness.
Mohamad did not address the dispute over the force’s composition, but he said the issue of what land the force can use in several towns has been resolved and the government has approved night flights for medical evacuations.
The major ”impediment” to night flights, he said, ”is the UN inability to upgrade the status of airports’ capabilities to cope with the requirements of 24-hour operations”.
Guehenno also criticised Sudan for proposing a Status of Forces Agreement with the AU-UN force which ”would make it impossible for the mission to operate”.
One proposal would allow the government to ”temporarily disable the communications network” in case of security operations to protect the country’s sovereignty. The other would require the force to provide ”advance notification to the government for all staff, troop and asset movements”, he said.
Mohamad said the agreement was under discussion, noting that since the inauguration of talks on November 19, ”the UN has twice asked for postponement”. – Sapa-AP