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 الاتحاد الإفريقي يحسم اليوم مصير قواته في دارفور
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الاتحاد الإفريقي يحسم اليوم مصير قواته في دارفور
سودانيزاونلاين.كوم
sudaneseonline.com
9/3/2006 8:42 م
الخرطوم عماد حسن والوكالات:
يعقد مجلس الأمن والسلم الافريقي اجتماعا حاسما اليوم في أديس ابابا لتحديد مصير قوات الاتحاد الافريقي في دارفور غرب السودان في وقت اعلن مسؤول السياسة الخارجية للاتحاد الأوروبي خافيير سولانا ان الخرطوم تضع شروطا مقيدة للغاية على الأمم المتحدة كي تتولى مهمة حفظ السلام في دارفور.
وقال سولانا بعد اجتماع ثان مع نائب الرئيس السوداني علي عثمان محمد طه في بروكسل انه لا يستطيع ضمان موافقة الاتحاد الافريقي في اجتماعه اليوم على تسليم العملية للأمم المتحدة. وكان سولانا أجرى محادثات مكثفة استمرت يوما مع طه ومسؤولين بارزين من الاتحاد الافريقي والأمم المتحدة والولايات المتحدة الاربعاء في محاولة لإقناع السودان بقبول بعثة أكثر قوة من الأمم المتحدة لوقف عمليات القتل في المنطقة التي تقع غربي البلاد. وقال طه: إن السودان يمكن أن يدرس دورا غير محدد للأمم المتحدة اذا اسفرت محادثات سلام مع المتمردين في العاصمة النيجيرية أبوجا عن تسوية سياسية للصراع لكن سولانا قال: إن ذلك مفيد للغاية.
وقال سولانا: “هذا لا يمضي بعيدا بما فيه الكفاية لأنه يعني انه لن يقبل إلا بعد أن تحقق محادثات أبوجا نتائج لكننا لا يمكننا أن نغامر بعدم البدء بالتخطيط اذا تطلب الامر في حال استمرار محادثات أبوجا لفترة طويلة”.
من جهة اخرى قال الفريق أول عبدالله عوض شقق عضو البرلمان عن المؤتمر الوطني الحاكم ل “الخليج”: إن اجتماعات اليوم ينتظر ان تخرج ببعض التوصيات والقرارات التي تدفع الى تمكين القوات الافريقية، وذلك بتحويل مهام المراقبة الى عملية تنفيذية ايضا وتوفير الدعم المادي واللوجستي اللازمين لها لتقوم بمهامها بصورة متكاملة بعدما اتضح للجميع فشل عملية المراقبة فقط.
ومن جانبه قال العميد عصام ميرغني عضو البرلمان عن التجمع الوطني المعارض ل “الخليج”: “إنه بالرغم من عدم وضوح الرؤية إلا أن الاجتماعات يمكن أن تخرج بقرارات تدعم بقاء القوات الافريقية في دارفور مع توفير الدعم المالي واللوجستي اللازمين لتؤدي القوات مهمتها بشكل متكامل”.
وفي أبوجا وحتى يوم امس فشلت مفوضية الاتحاد الافريقي في اقناع اطراف التفاوض في التوصل الى اتفاق مبدئي وشيك في دارفور يسبق الاجتماع وأعلنت المفوضية رفضها للشروط المسبقة التي يضعها اطراف التفاوض والتي علقت جلساتها في ابوجا، وأكدت على لسان كبير مفاوضيها سالم أحمد سالم ان قرار احلال قوات دولية سيتم تحديده في اجتماع اليوم في اديس ابابا، موضحا ان المفاوضات لم تحرز حتى الآن التقدم المنشود واتهم اطراف التفاوض بوضع العراقيل والشروط المسبقة كما ان حركة تحرير السودان تشهد خلافات ونزاعات داخلية قد تؤدي الى مزيد من الانقسامات.
على صعيد آخر اتهمت تشاد السودان بمساندة هجوم شنه مقاتلون عبر الحدود أخيرا وقالت الحكومة التشادية في بيان: “هذا الهجوم الجديد يمثل انتهاكا سافرا للاتفاق الذي تم التوصل اليه في طرابلس وتقع المسؤولية عنه على عاتق الحكومة السودانية”. وأضافت: ان 2500 رأس من الماشية و700 جمل سرقت في هجوم يوم الاثنين الذي وقع خلاله تبادل لاطلاق النار، ولم تذكر ما اذا كان الاشتباك قد ادى لسقوط قتلى أو جرحى.
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Re: الاتحاد الإفريقي يحسم اليوم مصير قواته في دارفور (Re: hala alahmadi)
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Fri, Mar 10, 2006 Edition.
Darfur needs UN force, says Sudanese opposition
Thursday 9 March 2006 14:04
Mar 9, 2006 (KHARTOUM) —
Sudan’s opposition said on Thursday they supported a plan to hand over peacekeeping in the country’s troubled Darfur region to the United Nations and denounced a government media campaign against it as misleading.
The African Union (AU) is due to decide on Friday whether to ask the United Nations to take over a 7,000-strong AU force already monitoring a shaky ceasefire in a region where fighting has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.
But Sudan’s Khartoum-based government has characterised any U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur as a foreign invasion and has waged a domestic information campaign that culminated in a march of thousands through the streets of the capital on Wednesday.
"Yesterday’s march was part of the government effort to influence public opinion — they are conducting a planned and misleading media effort," said Mariam al-Mahdi, spokeswoman of the widely popular opposition Umma party.
"It’s very serious because it might drag Sudan into a nonsensical confrontation with the international community."
Opposition politicians say the government’s knee-jerk reaction is being driven by the military, who fear that U.N. forces in Darfur might in future be asked to arrest those accused of alleged war crimes by the U.N.’s International Criminal Court (ICC).
"They are afraid that if the court has come to a point to arrest people then the UN contingent will do that," said Bashir Adam Rahma, Popular Congress Party political affairs chief.
The United States has condemned the violence in Darfur as genocide and accuses Sudan’s Khartoum-based government of fighting mostly non-Arab rebel movements in Darfur by arming Arab militias known colloquially as the Janjaweed.
Khartoum denies genocide, says it armed some tribes but denies links to the Janjaweed.
The Janjaweed have carried on a campaign of rape and pillage across the western Darfur region terrorising villagers, destroying crops and burning down homes in a three-year conflict that has left some two million people homeless.
Mahdi said as members of the United Nations it was irresponsible for the government to portray the U.N. as conquerors. "We Sudanese are members of U.N. peacekeeping forces around the world, for example in Somalia," she said.
Mubarak al-Fadil al-Mahdi, head of a breakaway faction of the Umma party, said a strong U.N. force could police the region and bring an end to Darfur violence.
"You need to bring a formidable force to protect the people in Darfur," he said. "The U.N. ... would have a better chance of doing that," he added.
(Reuters)
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Re: الاتحاد الإفريقي يحسم اليوم مصير قواته في دارفور (Re: hala alahmadi)
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Fri, Mar 10, 2006 Edition.
Sudan has no interest to provoke conflict with UN over Darfur - US Zoellik
Thursday 9 March 2006 17:20.
Mar 9, 2006 (PARIS) —
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said Sudanese government has no interest to provoke conflict with the United Nations on the issue of the International force for Sudan’s troubled Darfur region.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick addresses a news conference in Khartoum Thursday, April 14, 2005. (AFP).Zoellic who attended the second Donors conference for the South Sudan construction organised by the World Bank here told the press that International community has no time to waste. African Union force can’t implement ceasefire agreement and stop violence.
He called the African Union Security Council to back the deployment of UN peacekeeping force in Darfur region.
African foreign ministers are due to decide tomorrow whether to ask the United Nations to take control of their 7,000- peacekeeping force in Darfur, where 2 million people have been driven from their homes into camps by rape, killing and #####ng.
Asked whether Khartoum opposition to UN takeover for peacekeeping operations in Darfur will stop the UN efforts to bring international force to Darfur, Zoellick said that he tackled the issue with Sudanese second vice-president Ali Osman Taha yesterday in Brussels. Talah indicated according to him that Sudan has no problem with the UN.
"I know there has been anxiety in some quarters about the nature of a UN force," Zoellick said. "We would envision this building on the African Union force, which we can make stronger, and we believe there can be some other African and Asian components to it." He said.
According to Reuters Taha said from Brussels that Khartoum could consider an unspecified U.N. role if talks with rebels being held in the Nigerian capital Abuja yielded a deal to resolve the conflict.
Zoellick further said Darfur remains in crisis and there is a need for security and food in the region. AU force should be strengthened by additional help from the NATO in logistics, training and support.
Furthermore there is no contradiction between the International force and Abuja talks. Even after the conclusion of peace agreement, we need a security force there to help peace settlement in Darfur said Zoellick.
He indicated that the International force in Darfur should be leaded by an African commander.
Zoellick repeated that International action was needed urgently to help people in Darfur but there could be a link between UN involvement in the region and the Abuja peace talks.
The issue would be discussed with the AU top mediator Salim Ahmed Salim, Zoellick said.
The continuing conflict in Darfur has frustrated international donors and thwarted development progress. Three years of violence in the large region of western Sudan has left some 3000,000 dead - most from disease and hunger.
(ST)
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Re: الاتحاد الإفريقي يحسم اليوم مصير قواته في دارفور (Re: hala alahmadi)
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Fri, Mar 10, 2006 Edition.
EU Solana: Still hopeful of switching to UN Darfur force
Friday 10 March 2006 07:03.
Mar 9, 2006 (BRUSSELS
E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Thursday he remained hopeful the African Union could come to an agreement on Friday to agree to transfer their mission in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan to a wider U.N. force.
Javier Solana talking to Sudan’s VP, Ali Osman Taha, while US Robert Zoellick follows behind prior to a meeting with key international players to discuss the crisis in Darfur, at the EU Council building in Brussels, March 8, 2006. (AP)."It is for the leaders who are concerned to take this decision. We hope that the African Union will decide to move to a U.N. mission," Solana said.
At the U.N. in New York, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the U.S. focus in the last 10 days "has been to avoid a situation where the A.U. changes or obscures its initial decision in principle to welcome the rehatting" of the A.U. force.
The U.S. wants the transfer to a U.N. peacekeeping mission to get under way quickly and its lobbying effort is aimed "to eliminate the roadblock to the Security Council mandating this rehatting and beginning the transition and conducting it in an expeditious fashion," Bolton said.
Asked if he was confident the A.U. would agree to the "rehatting" of the A.U. force into a U.N. force, Bolton said: "I’m not confident and we’re concerned that Sudan’s very aggressive effort to convince people not to go forward with the rehatting may succeed. That’s why we have undertaken a diplomatic effort of the extent that we have. I’m sure there are still conversations going on. But at this point we’ll know tomorrow what the answer is," Bolton told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.
The E.U., U.S. and African officials have been urging Sudan to allow a large U.N. peacekeeping force to replace the current African Union mission. Darfur’s conflict, described by the U.N. as the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis, has left more than 180,000 people dead and 2 million displaced.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, in Paris for a World Bank donor meeting, called for urgent action.
"We urged the people in Khartoum to recognize that making the U.N. a point of conflict will be self-destructive for them," Zoellick said.
Zoellick said a future U.N. contingent could build on the 7,000-strong African Union force already on the ground in Darfur. Troops from African countries and possibly India and Pakistan could make up the rest of the force, he said.
He warned that it could take several months to get a U.N. peacekeeping force together, adding that the international community had "no time to waste."
"Millions of people are at risk here," he said.
(ST/AP)
(عدل بواسطة hala alahmadi on 03-10-2006, 03:21 AM)
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Re: الاتحاد الإفريقي يحسم اليوم مصير قواته في دارفور (Re: hala alahmadi)
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Fri, Mar 10, 2006 Edition.
Rural populations at risk as Darfur violence escalates
Friday 10 March 2006 08:07
Mar 9, 2006 - NYALA
As the security situation throughout Darfur deteriorates, the civilian population - especially in rural areas - continues to suffer the brunt of the violence.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), around 1.7 million people in rural communities and host populations are either sharing dwindling resources with those who have been displaced or suffered loss of livelihoods due to social and economic collapse.
"The main problem is protection of civilians in rural areas, in villages and outside the camps in general," said Gemmo Lodesani, humanitarian coordinator for North Sudan for the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).
Fighting between government and rebel forces, attacks on towns, villages and settlements for displaced people, as well as unhindered acts of banditry and intimidation, make it increasingly difficult for rural populations to maintain their way of life, and continue to force thousands of civilians from their homes.
In early 2006, it was estimated that approximately 3.5 million people had been affected by the conflict. They are increasingly dependent upon the humanitarian community for food, fresh water, safe sanitation, protection and education.
"As far as protection of rural areas and protection of the population in the villages is concerned, perhaps it has never been so bad since 2003," Lodesani noted. He said that the lack of protection for civilians had always been the problem of Darfur. Although the situation had improved somewhat over the first half of 2005, it became the overriding concern again by August last year.
UNICEF estimates that over 100,000 internally displaced persons and 71,000 conflict-affected people in host communities cannot be reached due to ongoing conflict in North Darfur. In West Darfur, the situation is worse, with more than 184,000 displaced people and about 209,000 members of host communities isolated by poor security.
"Protection of civilians should be the key strategic element, if you want, to improve the overall situation in Darfur," Lodesani said. "Be it through a transition from the African Union to the UN or be it through the strengthening of the current African Union set-up."
Escalation of the conflict
"In many ways, insecurity in Darfur is more widespread, more intense and more frequent on all fronts," Baba Gana Kingibe, head of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS, said recently. Dangerous elements, he added, "continue to burn, kill and rape on an ever-escalating scale".
Hashim Zakaria, director-general of the Sudanese Popular Committee for Relief and Rehabilitation (SPCR), which has been present in Darfur for decades, noted that the conflict had escalated because of splits within the rebel movements and certain militias and because a number of ethnic communities had started their own defence forces.
"A lot [of communities] who didn’t use to be part of this conflict until recently have started their own militia to secure their own land and people," he said.
"It is a very complex situation. There seems that almost monthly - if not weekly - more actors get involved in the situation. It’s getting quite difficult to know," said Niels Scott, head of the UNMIS Regional Office for Darfur.
In North and South Darfur, a deliberate strategy - by government forces and proxy militias in particular - to target civilians in an effort to stem out alleged support for enemy groups, has provoked further displacement. In South Darfur, thousands of people have fled the Shaeria area and villages around Gereida town.
In certain areas in West Darfur insecurity has been so pervasive - due to unabated harassment of the local population by various irregular armed groups and cross-border attacks in Chad - that aid agencies have had to withdraw, leaving communities without humanitarian assistance and extremely vulnerable to abuse.
Lodesani noted that since the end of December 2005, no humanitarian organisation had worked in the areas of Kulbus and Selela in northern West Darfur, where Arab militia killed 39 people at Aro Saroi camp for displaced people in October 2005.
"We don’t have firsthand information. There is not only the fact that the last food distribution was more than a month ago - we don’t have information about protection of civilians, what happened," he said.
An observer noted that in the whole Jebel Marra mountain region, in eastern West Darfur, there was "a return to outright hostilities with significant re-displacement". In violation of the ceasefire agreement, rebels of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) attacked the government-controlled town of Rokoro on 24 December 2005, followed by Golo on 23 January, leading to counterattacks by the Sudanese military and allied militias. "People have lost their houses, their belongings and their crops," he said.
"The government has basically chased away all the people in that town," Lodesani said. "Golo is a ghost town. Everybody has left."
The periphery of SLA-controlled areas in Jebel Marra, in particular to the north and east, was particularly unstable as a result of "a confluence of fault-lines", the observer added. These regions are not only border areas between SLA and government-controlled areas, but also mark the dividing lines between the two main SLA factions under the command of Minni Minnawi and Abdel Wahid Mohamed El Nur, respectively.
"Neither the government nor the SLA is genuine about the ceasefire," Zakaria said.
The empty countryside
Although the nature of the violence is highly context-specific - and no generalisations can be made for Darfur as a whole - the impact on civilian populations is more predictable. The rise in violence has caused further displacement to camps or urban centres and increased restrictions of movement in some areas. The prevailing insecurity prevents the civilian population from leading a normal life and sustaining themselves.
"Many farmers did not have access to their land and could not cultivate their fields or harvest crops. Migration routes were blocked, and nomads were not able to move with their livestock, preventing access to grazing and breeding areas as well as to vital water points," said Yasmine Praz Dessimoz, head of Darfur operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
"Due to restrictions of movement, people do not have access to essential services such as health centres. Markets are understocked; food insecurity has increased, forcing the population to find new coping mechanisms; and an already-failing local economy keeps collapsing," she added.
"The people don’t feel safe; even those who are staying in IDP camps," Zakaria noted. "People who stayed or returned to their villages only cultivate very small areas just outside their village and leave the rest untouched because of insecurity."
The SPCR director observed that many villagers from previously scattered settlements had concentrated in more centralised villages, to be better able to fend off potential attacks. In some villages on nomadic migration routes to the south and west of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state, as many as 18 different communities had assembled, posing problems in terms of the provision of food, water, education and medical support.
Camel-herding groups - the Maharia in particular - who were stuck in the area after the SLA blocked their migration further to the north were the main cause of insecurity in this area.
In contrast, in SLA-held territory to the north and east of Nyala, Arab groups - mostly Misseriya - had congregated in more homogenous settlements, such as El Banjadid, Merier, Nietega, Taisha, Om El Khirad and Kriekier, in order to defend themselves against rebel attacks.
In North Darfur, to the south and west of Kutum town, Arab militia of nomadic groups who were blocked from migrating northwards pose a similar threat to the predominantly Fur population. Most villages in the area have been burned and abandoned, but displaced people are staying closeby in Fatta Borno camp, surrounded by militia who harass them. As a result, the 20 km journey to Kutum market can only safely be made with the biweekly AU escort.
"Blocking the nomads has added a third element to the war," Zakaria said. "Even if there is an agreement in Abuja [the Nigerian capital where the peace talks are taking place], I don’t think we will see peace in Darfur. It is out of control."
In extreme cases, such as to the south and west of Kabkabiya town, the remaining farmers are literally kept hostage in their own village. Subject to severe harassment, they are forced to pay "protection fees" or risk being attacked. Militias threaten to kill them if they try to seek refuge in camps or nearby towns.
The result of the pervasive insecurity, as in many other areas in Darfur, has been an exodus from the countryside, leaving it largely deserted.
"People are leaving their lands," an aid worker in West Darfur said. "Their lives are being made impossible." Arab militia were harassing residents who were cultivating and their animals were trampling their crops, she said. The "protection fees" they paid did not guarantee their safety.
"The people are tired. They carried on and on, but it has been three years now," she said. "Step by step families are coming [to camps]." Large parts of the countryside of West Darfur, including the area west of the Jebel Marra mountains and the southern region of Mukjar and Wadi Salih, were largely empty. "In the long term, if nobody is cultivating the land, there will be no food."
"The emptying of the countryside has been a slow process that lasted three years, with the result that we have now," Lodesani said. "[Darfur is] eventually reaching the end of this process, because there is not too much left in the countryside to keep on emptying."
Protection and reconciliation
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Sudan, Jan Pronk, has called for the strengthening of the international community’s ability to protect innocent civilians in Darfur, as well as more emphasis on inter-Darfurian tribal reconciliation.
"We must be ready to have more strength on the ground, much stronger than we have now," Lodesani urged. Neither the Sudanese government nor the SLA or any other actors - the government militias, Arab militias, Chadian rebels and other splinter groups would "comply with a piece of paper," he said.
Pronk stressed, however, that the UN had never asked for a transition from AMIS to UN peacekeeping forces. He noted that the UN - with 14 existing operations - was reluctant to take on a new peace operation, as it was already overstretched and lacked sufficient troops. "The UN is not inciting the AU to hand over to the UN," he said, noting that the strengthening of the current AMIS forces was a valid option. Pronk acknowledged, however, that if the AU decided to opt for the transition of forces the UN had "the moral and political obligation to respond positively" because it was part of its mandate.
"I believe more and more in reconciliation talks on the ground in Darfur and not only in Abuja," Pronk said. As local commanders did not necessarily take orders from their leaders anymore, and "warlordism" was on the increase, the solution to certain conflicts had to be found at the local level.
"Of course, you cannot replace Abuja," he added, "but now that the rebel movements are so fragmented, you could also have some regional reconciliation efforts in order to solve local conflicts."
"In Abuja, they are completely overlooking the third group, which are the Arab tribes," Zakaria added. He noted that they were statistically the largest group in Darfur and had their own reasons to be disgruntled with the Sudanese government. "Whatever agreement will be reached, it will not be their agreement. In no time they will pick up their weapons and start attacking the SLA and even the government," he said.
"We need peace between the government and the SLA and we need tribal reconciliation," Pronk said on a recent visit to Shaeria town. "There is no need to wait for a result in Abuja. You can start here. At some point you have to stop the killing and reconcile among the tribes."
Improved humanitarian situation, but no funding
Despite the insecurity, Daniel Toole, director of the Office of Emergency Programmes of UNICEF, noted that during 2005 aid agencies managed to stabilise the humanitarian situation in many areas around Darfur, as reflected in the main indicators of malnutrition, mortality, access to water and education.
"We see now that 85 percent of the population has access to primary healthcare services in camp settings. You see that more children are in school than ever before - something like 300,000 - and 46 percent are girls," Toole said. "Water supply and sanitation is something like 70 percent of the population. That is something we have never seen, and we struggled very hard to build that up."
Many of the major donors have announced reductions in funding for 2006, however, and instead of expanding humanitarian assistance from camps to underserved rural areas, aid agencies are struggling to maintain their current level of services. Insecurity and lack of funding had constrained the expansion of humanitarian programmes into remote and rural areas, potentially exacerbating the "pull-effect" of camps for displaced people, as communities were moving towards areas receiving better international assistance.
With only 2.1 percent of its Darfur emergency programmes for 2006 funded so far, UNICEF warned that without significant and timely investment, the humanitarian crisis that was controlled in 2004-2005 would "certainly return and erode the progress made".
Toole stressed that in addition to the continuation of life-saving programmes, such as water, nutrition and health, the protection of vulnerable groups within camps would continue to be a priority, including support for child friendly spaces and women who had been raped.
Lodesani noted that measures such as firewood patrols for women venturing outside the camp and the distribution of fuel-efficient stoves had increased the ability of people in the camps to conduct a normal life, which was one of the main protection issues last year. "That was one of the major issues, especially rape, and although we don’t have statistics, we have the perception that it has improved," he said. "But there is, in my opinion, still a lot to do."
"As much we can say that there has been an improvement on this type of protection," Lodesani added, "as much we can say that the protection of civilians outside the camps has never been so bad. Never been so terrible."
The return of civilians to the countryside would only be possible if the security situation improved, according to Dessimoz of the ICRC. "A secure environment will allow the population to move freely, get access to farming lands, water points, grazing lands, markets and slowly become self sustainable, and eventually reduce their dependency on aid," she said.
(IRIN)
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Re: الاتحاد الإفريقي يحسم اليوم مصير قواته في دارفور (Re: hala alahmadi)
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Fri, Mar 10, 2006 Edition.
Tough intervention needed to stop Darfur bloodshed
Thursday 9 March 2006 18:10
Editorial, by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Mar 09, 2006 — The humanitarian crisis in Darfur, in the west of Sudan, has now gone on for three years in spite of efforts by the African Union, the United Nations, nongovernmental organizations and, to a degree, the government of Sudan itself to bring it under control.
Tomorrow, the African Union will make a decision in Addis Ababa on whether to turn peacekeeping, which it has attempted unsuccessfully to do itself since 2004, over to the United Nations.
The Sudanese government opposes this move. It has underlined this position through demonstrations in its capital, Khartoum, through unattributed death threats against the ######### of the U.N. mission and the American Embassy, and through a hurried trip by a delegation to Brussels to talk to the European Union and the United States about heading it off. It has also threatened to pull out of the African Union if that organization makes such a decision.
The Darfur problem is very serious. People argue about the numbers, but thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and more than a million have been displaced from their homes. They have fled to camps established by humanitarian organizations, to be cared for by those organizations at considerable cost.
The matter has become internationalized as well. The Darfur region of Sudan is on that country’s border with Chad and the Central African Republic. Fighting has now spilled over into Chad, with both countries accusing the other of harboring anti-government tribal rebels. The Chadian government of President Idriss Deby has used the trouble as justification for breaking his country’s agreement with the World Bank to use its newfound oil wealth for development and social services. He claims he needs the money to buy arms to fight the Sudan-based insurgents.
The Darfur problem seemed first to be a problem for the African Union, in the policy context of "African solutions to African problems." So AU troops, some 7,000 of them, were sent to Darfur. But it didn’t work, either because the African troops were badly equipped, badly led or insufficient in number. Now they are running out of money and no one — including the EU, the United States and the wealthier African nations — has stepped forward to pick up the financing of the force.
Sudan doesn’t want U.N. troops there. One reason is that they might be more effective in making and enforcing peace than the African force has been. In particular, they might focus on the government-supported janjaweed militia and put them out of business. Sudanese demonstrators are concentrating on the fact that the U.N. troops would not necessarily be Muslim and would thus potentially constitute action such as the United States has carried out in Iraq — non-Muslim forces invading a Muslim country to resolve an intra-Muslim problem.
So what to do? The obvious move would be for someone — preferably the wealthier, oil-economy African countries — to put up the cash for many more AU troops to deal with a serious African problem. Sudan has borders with nine African countries so this is definitely an inter-African problem.
The second, less attractive alternative is for the AU to approve the sending of U.N. troops in spite of Sudanese government wishes. The argument would be that the Sudanese government and the African Union have failed to deal with the problem, lots of people are still displaced and dying, and this simply cannot be allowed to go on, whatever the Sudanese government thinks of such an intervention. Then, a major effort should be made to recruit a strong U.N. peacekeeping force from Islamic countries — Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Albania and the like. The United States and the European Union should send money.
The Darfur crisis, which some call genocide, simply cannot be allowed to go on in the world in 2006. Rwanda, with some 800,000 dead, made that point in 1994 — as if it still needed to be made a half-century after the Holocaust.
http://www.sudaneseonline.com/article.php3?id_article=14455
(عدل بواسطة hala alahmadi on 03-10-2006, 04:00 AM)
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Re: الاتحاد الإفريقي يحسم اليوم مصير قواته في دارفور (Re: hala alahmadi)
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As AU debates UN takeover in Darfur, Sudan FM calls to maintain African force
Friday 10 March 2006 12:55
Mar 10, 2006 - ADDIS ABABA
— Sudan’s foreign minister called on the African Union not to surrender its peacekeeping operations in Sudan’s Darfur region to the U.N., saying Friday that Africans should solve their own problems.
"The transition of the mission to the United Nations will represent a serious setback for the AU," Lam Akol told African foreign ministers gathered at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia to discuss the proposed hand-over.
"Sending any foreign and non-African forces to Darfur would encourage the rebel movements to adopt more intransigent positions in the Abuja peace talks," he added.
Other Sudanese officials, who have been lobbying African governments hard, have argued the violence would only escalate if U.N. peacekeepers move in.
Wednesday, tens of thousands of Sudanese marched through Khartoum, protesting the proposed U.N. takeover.
But the chairman of the African Union Commission, Alpha Omare Konare, presented a report to the council recommending the transition to a U.N. peacekeeping force.
One reason given to support the hand-over has been the inability of the African Union to finance the peacekeeping operation. The 7,000-strong African Union force has faced severe funding and logistical problems, and its mandate expires at the end of March.
The meeting of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council was expected to last most of the day.
The Security Council has recommended that the U.N. start planning to take over peacekeeping.
European Union, U.S. and African officials have been urging Sudan to allow a large U.N. peacekeeping force to replace the African Union mission.
Darfur’s conflict, described by the U.N. as the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis, has left more than 180,000 people dead and 2 million displaced, since the start of a 2003 revolt by rebels from Darfur’s ethnic African population.
The Arab-dominated Sudanese government is alleged to have responded to the revolt by unleashing Arab militias, who carried out sweeping atrocities against ethnic African villagers.
E.U. foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said Thursday in Brussels he remained hopeful the African Union would agree to transfer their mission to a U.N. force.
"It is for the leaders who are concerned to take this decision. We hope that the African Union will decide to move to a U.N. mission," Solana said.
(ST/AP)
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Re: الاتحاد الإفريقي يحسم اليوم مصير قواته في دارفور (Re: Sabri Elshareef)
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الاخت هالة الاحمدى
تحية طيبة
الاتحاد الافريقى قرر قبل قليل تمديد مهمة قوات السلام الافريقية الى 30 سبتمبر من هذا العام. وقال وزير خارجية اثيوبيا الذى تلا القرار ان الاتحاد الافريقى يؤيد من حيث المبدأ تحويل مهمة حفظ السلام الى الامم المتحدة ولكنه لم يدخل فى تفاصيل. وقال انهم سوف يعقدون مؤتمرآ فى القريب العاجل لتوفير الدعم المالى اللازم لاستمرار قوات الاتحاد الافريقى فى اداء مهمتها بدارفور.
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Re: الاتحاد الإفريقي يحسم اليوم مصير قواته في دارفور (Re: hala alahmadi)
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March 10, 2006 6:50 PM
AU extends Darfur mission
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The African Union Peace and Security Council on Friday extended its peacekeeping mission in Darfur to September 30, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said.
"The Council decided to extend the mandate of AMIS until September 30, 2006," Seyoum said of the African Mission in Sudan.
The pan-African group was under intense international pressure to turn over Darfur peacekeeping to the United Nations but Sudan said any such action would spell the end of AU-mediated peace talks on Darfur.
Seyoum said the Council supports in principle transferring responsibility for Darfur peacekeeping to the United Nations but did not elaborate.
AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare recommended an extension of the AU mission as a way to break the impasse over U.N. troops and also give the AU time to persuade Sudan to accept a U.N. presence in Darfur.
The AU is monitoring a shaky cease-fire with 7,000 ill-equipped troops. Security has deteriorated recently to the point that vast areas of Darfur are off limits to aid workers.
"It is envisaged that a pledging conference could be sought for the sustenance of the mission," Seyoum added.
Some 2 million people have been driven from their homes during a three-year-old conflict that began as a revolt by mostly non-Arabs who said they were marginalised by the government in Khartoum.
Reuters
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Adil Osman
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