Security Council presses Sudan on U.N. Darfur force

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The Security Council on Tuesday
pressed Sudan’s reluctant government to let U.N. military
experts into Darfur within a week to plan for deployment of a
U.N. peacekeeping force in the region later this year.

Sudan barred letting U.N. troops take over from the smaller
and under-equipped African Union force now in Darfur pending a
peace agreement, and has given mixed signals since the May 5
signing of a peace deal in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.

The Khartoum government has so far declined to allow the
U.N. military planners in Darfur — as part of a joint mission
with AU planners — or give them visas.

But at a meeting on Monday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa, the African Union Peace and Security Council firmly
endorsed a transition to a U.N. force in Darfur after September
30.

The AU council, under heavy lobbying from the Sudanese
government, had earlier waffled on a changeover.

The U.N. resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation
council on Tuesday did not spell out the consequences of
missing the deadline.

But U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said, “The government of
Sudan would find itself in a very difficult position if it
didn’t cooperate with this transition.”

The resolution endorsed the AU Peace and Security Council’s
decision and urged Sudan’s government and Darfur rebels to work
with AU and U.N. officials “to accelerate transition to a
United Nations operation.”

It was the African Union’s view, the resolution said, that
“concrete steps should be taken to effect the transition” from
the AU force to a United Nations operation.

The measure said the council now “calls for the deployment
of a joint African Union and United Nations technical
assessment mission within one week of the adoption of this
resolution.”

Despite voting in favor of the resolution, Russia, China
and Qatar, who have treated the Khartoum government gingerly on
Darfur, stressed that any U.N. peacekeeping operation had to
have Sudan’s agreement.

The three nations, in almost identical statements, did not
encourage Sudan to allow a U.N. military planning group into
the country but said they agreed to the resolution because of
African Union decisions.