The United Nations and the African Union were close to a deal on Wednesday on fielding 23Â 000 peacekeepers in Sudan’s violent Darfur region, but full deployment is not expected until next year at the earliest. Sudan has still to agree to the large force, after it refused to have an operation controlled solely by the United Nations.
Despite pressure for Sudan to accept a force of 23 000 troops and police, a African Union committee has not approved plans sent by the United Nations. Sudan has been sent an copy of details drawn up recently but a submission cannot happen until the AU’s Peace and Security Committee gives its consent.
United States senator Joe Biden said that he would commit US forces immediately to stop militia in Sudan’s Darfur region as long as there were reports of genocide. Biden said on Monday that in his personal opinion nations had at ”some point to cede their sovereignty” if they engaged in genocide.
The United Nations intends to send a mission to Chad next week in an attempt to allay government concerns about a proposed UN peacekeeping operation in Sudan’s western neighbour, UN officials said on Friday. The group of about 10 experts leaves during the weekend to begin talks with Chadian leaders in the capital, Ndjamena, on Tuesday.
The United Nations said on Wednesday an independent probe was being conducted into whether UN vehicles were used to smuggle diamonds from a mine in Zimbabwe. In January, the industry’s World Diamond Council said it received reports that diamonds in Zimbabwe were being smuggled into South Africa.
Zimbabwe, widely criticised for mismanaging its economy, was elected on Friday as head of the Commission on Sustainable Development, the main United Nations inter-governmental body on the environment. Despite objections from Western nations, the 53-nation commission voted Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment and Tourism, Francis Nheme, as chairperson to replace oil-producer Qatar.
Ministers meeting on solutions to cuts in carbon emissions do not trust each other to come up with concrete measures by Friday. ”Many industrialised countries believe that the developing countries are unwilling and that they are doing too little,” said former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland.
The United Nations General Assembly has unveiled proposals that would send plans to expand the elite UN Security Council back to the drawing board and instead enlarge the elite body on a temporary basis. The Security Council, which can make mandatory decisions on war and peace, has five veto-bearing permanent members given seats when the UN was created in 1945.
After months of delay, Sudan said it would let 3 000 United Nations peacekeepers into Darfur to reinforce an African Union force struggling to keep the peace, the most substantial agreement to date. But the new military personnel may take six months to recruit and deploy, UN officials said.
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.