September 20, 2006
President Omar al-Bashir has reiterated his opposition to any United Nations force being deployed in Darfur saying it was part of a "Zionist plot". But Sudan's leader said he would allow African Union troops to stay on and may accept "non-African" advisers. AU leaders, including Mr Bashir, are to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to decide on the future of its Darfur force.
More than two million people have been displaced in the three-year rebellion. The UN Security Council passed a resolution last month calling for the deployment of up to 20,000 UN peacekeepers to replace the 7,000-strong AU force whose mandate expires at the end of the month. The UN wants to send a full international peacekeeping operation to end what some governments, including the United States, have called genocide perpetrated by the Sudanese army and its associated militias. President Bashir, who is part of the AU security council, said he "totally rejected" the UN taking over peacekeeping in Darfur, although his government is split with African members from the SPLM and SLA backing the plan.
A BBC analyst says the issue is exacerbating old tensions between Sudan's African and Arab populations, that Sudan's peace process was designed to resolve.
Weak
Speaking from the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Mr Bashir said the plan to replace AU troops with a UN force was intended "to weaken states in the region in order to help Israel". He said the move would allow opponents to dismember Sudan and plunder its resources. He also maintained that reports of a humanitarian crisis in Darfur were exaggerated.
But much of Darfur is inaccessible to aid agencies and the security situation has deteriorated in recent weeks. A recent academic report said the number of additional deaths caused by the three-year conflict in Darfur ran into the hundreds of thousands and not tens of thousands.
The BBC's Mark Doyle says that the key issue is not so much whether the force is a UN one or an AU one, but whether the AU can operate with a tougher mandate allowing them to shoot if things get tough - which is how UN peacekeepers operate. He says that if that happened, then the money and management support needed to run a successful operation could be forthcoming and the diplomatic impasse could be resolved. It is thought that a three-month extension of the AU troops' mandate may be proposed.
Action
The UN general assembly has already heard forceful calls for action in Darfur. US President George Bush said the credibility of the UN was at stake and announced the appointment of a special American envoy, former USAid chief Andrew Natsios, to help in the efforts. "If the Sudanese government does not approve the peacekeeping force quickly, the UN must act," Mr Bush said.
President Chirac of France warned that a crime against humanity was being prepared in Darfur. Liberian leader Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said the UN had a duty to protect the helpless and intervene militarily "to restore peace, security and stability to Darfur".
The UN mission in Sudan has warned that hundreds of thousands of people could be freshly displaced if international peacekeepers leave Darfur. Violence has worsened since a peace deal was reached with one of the three main rebels groups earlier this year and aid workers may pull out of Darfur if the AU peacekeepers leave and are not replaced by a UN force.
More Information on Sudan
More Information on Peacekeeping
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