Darfur deal 'weak'
2006-06-19 22:58
Khartoum - A Darfur peace deal has
"serious flaws" and only an urgent, robust UN peacekeeping
mission will ensure it does not collapse and further divide the
violent region, a think tank report said on Tuesday.
An African Union-mediated May 5 peace deal for Sudan's west
was signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions in
the Nigerian capital Abuja.
Thousands in Darfur's refugee camps have demonstrated daily
against the accord saying it does not meet their basic demands
and AU forces monitoring a shaky truce there have been attacked
by angry and frustrated Darfuris.
"There is a very real danger that the international
community, in its eagerness to get a deal, has brokered one that
is structurally weak," the International Crisis Group (ICG) said
in a 19-page report.
"The document has serious flaws, and two of the three rebel
delegations did not accept it," it added.
Disarmament
Rebels who did not sign say it failed to give them enough
political posts or compensation for war victims.
They also want
a role in monitoring the disarmament of Khartoum's allied Arab
militia, known locally as Janjaweed, who are blamed for much of
the rape, murder and looting in the vast region.
"Sudan's government conceded little during the Abuja
negotiations to the demands of Darfur's rebels for a greater
share in national decision making and a fairer share of revenues
for their region," the report said.
It added the deal lacked methods of implementation and
guarantees disarmament would take place.
Khartoum has signed five agreements over the past two years
promising to disarm the Janjaweed. But it has done little,
claiming Janjaweed are not militia but petty outlaws.
Under the peace agreement Sudan has until Thursday to
present a plan to the AU to disarm proxy militias.
September 30 deadline
Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2.5 million
forced from their homes to miserable camps during three years of
fighting in Darfur that the AU forces have been unable to stop.
The ICG said the AU should not extend the mandate of its
struggling 7 000-strong force in Darfur beyond September 30.
Instead
a rapid reaction UN force should be sent as the first
component of a UN transition in Sudan's remote west.
"It is critical that the transition to a UN force in
Darfur occur on or around 30 September 2006," the report said.
"The longer the takeover is postponed, the less legitimate
the (accord) will become to many in Darfur, where there is
already little confidence in it and in (the AU)."
Sudan rejects the UN mission saying it would attract
foreign fighters and ignite an Iraq-style conflict.
Some critics say Khartoum objects because it fears UN
soldiers may be used to arrest officials likely to be indicted
by the International Criminal Court investigating alleged war
crimes in Darfur.
A joint UN-AU technical team is in Sudan to assess the
needs of a UN mission and how to support the AU during
transition.
But that mission has yet to garner public support
from Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for UN troops.
Some Sudanese officials have said they do not object in
principle to UN forces, but would not accept a mandate which
would empower UN peacekeepers to enforce the ceasefire.
The ICG said a Chapter VII mandate was essential.
"The brittle (deal) has such an array of possible spoilers
that anything less than a large, full-fledged Chapter VII
mission instructed to protect civilians and help implement the
peace agreement would multiply the risk of failure of both the
UN operation in Darfur and the peace process as a whole."
- Reuters