Global Policy Forum

By Evelyn Leopold

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to authorize a 10,000-strong peacekeeping force for southern Sudan but remained deadlocked on any action for Darfur in the west. The peacekeepers are to monitor a crucial agreement signed in January between the Khartoum government and southern rebels that ended a 21-year old civil war. That conflict cost 2 million lives and forced 4 million people from their homes.

The council's resolution, drafted by the United States, calls for up to 10,000 military personnel, a civilian component up to 715 police, which U.N. officials say will take several months to get on the ground. In their accord, Khartoum and the Southern Peoples Liberation Movement agreed on political power-sharing arrangements and a division of the country's oil wealth. They also called for integrated security forces in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, the Southern Blue Nile and in Khartoum. "Having a transitional government in Sudan will help provide a political framework that we hope will improve the situation in Darfur," said U.S. envoy Stuart Holliday.

Darfur Deadlock

But the 15 Security Council members remained deadlocked over where to try perpetrators of atrocities, with France having introduced a resolution to send war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court, which the United States opposes. A U.S. veto could, in effect, send a signal that Sudanese officials, militia leaders and rebels were safe from punishment in Darfur, where fighting is escalating, tens of thousands have been killed and some 2 million people have been herded into squalid camps.

A vote is expected on Wednesday on the French draft and on a resolution that would call for a stricter arms ban and impose a travel and an assets freeze against individuals in Darfur. China, Russia and Algeria oppose this. "It's a question of combating impunity in the case of Sudan," said France's U.N. ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, adding that the ICC alone was in place and ready to investigate. The United States has proposed a new U.N.-African Union tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania.

Britain, America's closest ally, sided with France on the ICC. "The United Kingdom will vote for both resolutions and I hope they will carry," Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said. European diplomats still hope to get an abstention from Washington, although that appears unlikely.

The French draft provides an exemption in Sudan from the court for such nations as the United States, which U.S. officials indicated was not strong enough. The Bush administration rejects the court, the world's first permanent criminal tribunal set up in The Hague to try war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. It fears U.S. citizens could face politically motivated prosecutions.

Nine council members have ratified the treaty creating the ICC -- Argentina, Benin, Brazil, Britain, Denmark, France, Greece, Romania and Tanzania. They hope Russia, Japan or the Philippines would also vote in favor.

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