UNITED NATIONS/BEIJING, 15 June 2007 — The UN peacekeeping chief called Sudan’s acceptance of a joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force for Darfur “a significant step forward” though he cautioned that “it’s not the end of the road.”
“What we certainly have today is agreement of the government of Sudan on the hybrid mission and that is something significant,” Undersecretary-General John-Marie Guehenno told reporters Wednesday after briefing the UN Security Council. “We needed that step. We have that step now and we believe we can build on it,” he said at the United Nations.
The African Union announced Tuesday in Addis Ababa that Sudan had agreed to allow up to 19,000 peacekeepers in Darfur. There had been some skepticism on whether the acceptance was conditional, but Guehenno appeared upbeat about the accord.
Akuei Bona Malwal, the deputy head of Sudan’s mission in Ethiopia, confirmed on Wednesday that Sudan accepted the mission after receiving assurances Tuesday that the hybrid AU-UN force will not be open-ended and Sudan will remain in control of its borders.
China also welcomed Sudan’s acceptance of the peacekeeping force. “China welcomes the deployment of a hybrid AU-UN force in Darfur and the joint statement,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement posted on the ministry’s website in Beijing late Wednesday.
“The facts have shown that dialogue and equal negotiation is an effective approach to political solution of the Darfur issue, and the consultation between AU, UN and Sudan is an effective mechanism,” Qin said.
The Security Council called for “the timely and full implementation of the agreement” reached in Addis Ababa and immediate respect for the cease-fire it calls for, Belgian’s UN Ambassador Johan Verbeke, the council president, told reporters.
The council also backed UN and AU efforts to get all rebel groups and the government to the negotiating table to reach a political solution to the four-year conflict and said it was looking forward to talks with Sudanese leaders when a council mission visits Khartoum on Sunday, Verbeke said. “Generally, there was a welcoming of this agreement,” he added.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has made peace in Darfur a top priority since taking over as UN chief on Jan. 1, called the agreement among the AU, UN, and the Sudanese government “a milestone development” and said he would now step up efforts to get all parties to the conflict to the negotiating table to reach a political agreement.
The conflict between ethnic African rebels and pro-government Janjaweed militia in Sudan’s vast western region has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million, and a beleaguered 7,000-strong African Union force has been unable to stop the fighting.
A peace agreement signed a year ago year between President Omar Bashir’s government and one rebel group in Darfur has been ineffective because more than a dozen other rebel factions rejected the deal as insufficient and are still fighting.
Stressing that the agreement is “not the end of the road,” Guehenno said work is going on now on the rules of engagement and the concept of operations for the hybrid force, which will be a first for the United Nations. He added that implementation will not be easy because “the situation remains difficult” and Darfur’s terrain is challenging.
“We believe that we have the fundamentals of a new type of operation,” Guehenno said. “We will be providing the administration, the logistics, applying UN rules and procedures, but in the framework of a joint UN-AU effort.” He indicated that Sudan had accepted that the United Nations would have overall operational control of the force while day-to-day operations would be in the hands of its African commanders.
The UN and Western governments have been pressing Sudan since November to accept a UN plan for a larger “hybrid” force to replace the AU force now in Darfur. In April, Sudan agreed to a “heavy support package” to strengthen the AU force, which will pave the way for the hybrid operation. It includes 3,000 UN troops, police and civilian personnel along with aircraft and other equipment.
Guehenno said the UN has indications that Sudan will approve offers from two African countries and two non-African countries for engineering companies and other specialized units for the heavy support package.
China’s UN Ambassador Wang Guangya said one non-African unit would be from China, which is the largest buyer of Sudan’s oil and has other commercial links. “I do hope that the Sudanese government will also give the green light for the Chinese forces to be deployed,” he said, adding that China would also consider providing troops for the hybrid force if asked.
