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US wants more peacekeepers
06/03/2008 17:11 - (SA)
New York - The US is spearheading a new initiative to get a 26 000-strong peacekeeping force on the ground in Sudan's Darfur region, where the five-year conflict has escalated and malnutrition is rising.
Ambassador Richard Williamson, who took over in January as US President George W Bush's special envoy to Sudan, said countries that are "friends" of the African Union-UN force would meet on Thursday at UN headquarters for the first time to start tackling obstacles to deployment of the hybrid force known as UNAMID.
"Given the humanitarian suffering, given the instability and violence that's going on, it's way past time for talk. We have to have action, including accelerating deployment of UNAMID troops on the ground," Williamson told reporters on Wednesday after meeting Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The AU-UN force is authorised to have 26 000 troops and police, but Ban said only about 7 500 military personnel and 1 500 police officers were in Darfur on January 31.
He appealed to all countries that have pledged troops to expedite their deployment - and he reiterated an appeal for critically needed helicopters.
At Sudan's insistence, the UN Security Council agreed that the force would be predominantly African, but the Sudanese government has refused to approve non-African units from Thailand, Nepal and Nordic countries, which withdrew their offer.
"He did not reject it," Williamson said. "We're going to have some follow up discussions."
Alleviate humanitarian suffering
Williamson said the normal rotation from AU battalions to UN battalions, plus new Egyptian and Ethiopian units that have been accepted for the hybrid force, would mean another 3 600 African peacekeepers on the ground by the end of May.
"All we want is results on the ground, so there can be alleviation of humanitarian suffering, so there can be some stability," Williamson said.
At least 200 000 people have been killed and 2.2 million displaced since the fighting began five years ago.
In a report last month, the secretary-general urged the government and all rebel groups to agree to a cease-fire in Darfur, saying deteriorating security is undermining efforts to help thousands of civilians caught in an upsurge in fighting.
He complained that there is $1.2bn allocated for the AU-UN peacekeeping mission and it should be further advanced, first in putting troops into Darfur, but also in building camps for the troops, providing reliable water supplies, finding helicopters and developing infrastructure.
This is a key reason why at Bush's initiative, "we are launching a Friends of UNAMID group" - to overcome the obstacles by rallying members of the international community who can help, he said.
- AP
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