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Security Council told that Sudan Government is closer to agreeing on UN Darfur force

Security Council told that Sudan Government is closer to agreeing on UN Darfur force

Amb. Emyr Jones Parry briefs the Council
The head of the United Nations Security Council delegation that recently visited the violence-wracked Darfur region of Sudan, said today that although agreement had not yet been reached with the Sudanese Government on allowing a UN force to take over peacekeeping duties there, such an agreement was now a “probability.”

Briefing the 15-member Council, British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said that the visiting delegation was in full agreement with the view of the African Union (AU), which is currently providing a peacekeeping force to Darfur, that the UN should take over this role at “the earliest opportunity.”

“By the end of our visit the mission felt that we’d edged further towards the probability of the Government of Sudan accepting such a deployment,” Ambassador Parry said, referring to a UN role to replace the 7,000-strong AU force that has long been seen as inadequate to halt the bloodshed in such a vast region and to implement a peace accord signed by the Government and the main Darfur rebels.

Throughout the mission, Ambassador Parry said, the delegation had emphasized its “respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sudan” and stressed that the Security Council wished to work “in partnership” with the Government and the other main actors to tackle the range of problems that the country faces.

Also briefing the Council today, and further emphasizing the need to look at the Darfur situation in the context of regional peace, Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sablière of France – who jointly led the trip to Chad – said the mission’s visit there had shown how important it was to look at this country as well, particularly as Chad’s refugee camps were partially filled with Chadians who had fled attacks by Janjaweed militia in Darfur.

The Council also heard from Tanzanian Ambassador Augustine P. Mahiga who stressed that expanding assistance to Darfur was “not an optional choice but an obligation,” adding that in the coming days the Council should work to ensure the continued implementation of the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement that was signed in May.

Speaking at a press conference in New York today, Secretary-General Kofi Annan also emphasized the importance of the Agreement and repeated his earlier calls for the AU force on the ground to be strengthened.

“We need to maintain the pressure on those who have signed the Agreement to live up to the Agreement that they have signed," he said. “That goes for the Sudanese Government that has responsibility for the disarmament of the Janjaweed, and for the rebel groups, and to maintain the pressure on the two rebel groups that are outside the Agreement to join the process.”

“And the African Union forces on the ground should be strengthened to do what they can. We are not on the ground yet, and cannot therefore take this on.”

A joint UN-African Union team arrived in Darfur on Tuesday aiming to strengthen the AU monitoring force already there and to prepare for its possible transition to a full-fledged UN peacekeeping operation.