Speed up peace plans, UN urged
2006-03-24 12:44
New York - The United Nations security council agreed to ask secretary-general Kofi Annan to greatly speed planning for a new UN force in Sudan's western Darfur region.
The text of a draft resolution, put forward by Washington and set to be adopted by the 15-nation council on Friday, would give Annan until April 24 to prepare "a range of options for a UN operation in Darfur".
It would also ask the UN leader to prepare recommendations within a month on how a separate UN peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan could help crack down on Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army, an armed group that had wreaked havoc in the region for decades.
10 000 children abducted
The LRA had terrorised communities in Uganda's remote north for two decades and some of its fighters had recently crossed over into neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.
Led by self-proclaimed prophet Joseph Kony, the LRA had killed tens of thousands of unarmed villagers, slicing off survivors' lips or ears and abducting more than 10 000 children as fighters, porters and sex slaves.
An African Union peacekeeping force of some 7 000 troops was already in Darfur, seeking to protect villagers from marauding Arab militias that the UN and the US said were being armed by the Khartoum government - an allegation the Sudanese government denies.
But, the poorly equipped and under-financed AU force had proven ineffective in ending the violence, prompting Annan to call for its replacement by a bigger UN force.
Security council under pressure
However, Sudan's government had said it didn't want UN troops in Darfur until a peace agreement was reached in talks taking place in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
The AU's peace and security council, bending under pressure from Sudan, voted this month to extend its mission in Darfur through September 30 while affirming in principle its plan to eventually hand off to a UN force.
US ambassador John Bolton said this week that he wanted the new resolution to accelerate planning and lay the groundwork for a smooth transition to a UN force in Darfur without waiting for formal approval from the AU and Sudan.
The text would also extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in the south, due to expire on Friday.