Sudan says no to UN force
2006-05-25 12:45
Khartoum - Sudan on Wednesday said it would not accept the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur as a security council deadline for a UN team to be allowed into the strife-torn region expired.
Presidential adviser Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmed said: "The government does not accept the deployment of foreign forces under UN security council chapter seven."
The declaration came after talks with UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and deputy under-secretary general for peacekeeping operations Hedi Annabi, who flew into Khartoum on Tuesday to arrange access for the team.
Their arrival followed a UN security council resolution passed under chapter seven on May 16 urging speedy implementation of a peace accord reached in Nigeria early this month between Khartoum and the main Darfur rebel group.
Chapter seven resolutions 'binding'
The 15-member body also called for the deployment of a joint African Union-UN technical assessment team within one week to lay the groundwork for a handover of the AU peacekeeping mission to the UN.
Resolutions passed under chapter seven were binding, eventually allowing for the use of force if they were not complied with.
Ahmed said he had told Brahimi of the sincerity of those who signed the May 05 peace deal "for achieving the aspirations of the people of Darfur for peace".
Two smaller rebel factions had declined to sign the Darfur peace. The AU had given them until May 31 to do so.
7 000-strong AU mission 'unnecessary'
Ahmed suggested that the planning mission for a force of about double the current 7 000-strong AU mission was unnecessary as an earlier AU technical mission "studied the situation in Darfur and there is sufficient information on what is now going on there"
UN chief Kofi Annan on Tuesday called Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to urge him to let the UN military planners in, telling him he "hoped to see the UN assessment mission dispatched as soon as possible".
Khartoum had blown hot and cold over whether it would accept a UN deployment in Darfur, initially flatly refusing such a move, but more recently suggesting it was willing to be flexible on the issue.
Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister who had been dispatched to several hotspots in recent years, was due to meet Beshir on Thursday to put his case for the UN technical mission to be allowed in.
Three years of war in Darfur between rebels and Khartoum's forces backed by proxy Arab militias had claimed at least 300 000 lives and displaced 2.4 million people.
- SAPA