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'Speed up deployment' in Darfur
19/03/2008 13:17 - (SA)
Geneva - United Nations and African peace envoys on Tuesday urged donor nations to speed support to peacekeepers in war-torn Darfur, and called on Chad and Sudan to work harder to cool border tensions exacerbating the long-running conflict.
"If we can get a quicker deployment of the peacekeeping troops then we can convey the message that yes, the security is increasing," said Jan Eliasson, the UN special envoy to Darfur.
"For peacekeeping to be successful there has to be a peace to keep," he told a news briefing at the close of two-day talks at the UN offices in Geneva.
Efforts to end the conflict in which some 200 000 people were estimated to have died had been dogged by tribal clashes, tensions between Chad and Sudan, divergent interests by the international community and fragmented rebel demands.
UN-AU force takes over
Darfur had been beset by unrest since early 2003 after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Khartoum, accusing the central government of neglect.
A joint UN-African Union mission took over peacekeeping duties on December 31, but with only 9 000 of the required 26 000 troops and police on the ground it had not yet been able to do its job properly.
Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim, the special envoy of the AU for Darfur, met in Geneva with negotiators from Chad, Eritrea, Egypt, Libya and international observers to take stock of the region's needs. "We have been able to achieve some progress," Salim said.
Two of the five rebel groups in Darfur are ready to meet with the Sudanese government, one seeks more time and two others have placed security preconditions, the envoys say.
Search for peace
Most recently, the powerful Darfur rebel group JEM, or the Justice and Equality Movement, had demanded one-on-one peace talks with the Sudanese government, saying it was the only viable insurgent force.
Eliasson said: "There are rather far-reaching demands that we have to deal with. If they don't unify their own movements then we hope at least they will unify positions."
The government's response to the revolt - the mobilisation of mostly Arab tribal militia - coupled with rebel divisions had created a chaotic mix of armed groups and a breakdown of law and order.
Cross-border incursions between Chad and Sudan threaten to further complicate the search for peace, said the envoys.
The two countries accused each other of supporting insurgents in Darfur and neighbouring eastern Chad. President Idriss Deby fended off a rebel assault on N'Djamena in February, which he accused Khartoum of organising.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Deby signed a non-aggression pact in Senegal late last week in an effort to end cross-border rebel attacks on their respective territories.
- Reuters
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