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United States Continues To Press for Action on Darfur

01 March 2006

U.S. envoy Bolton sees critical need for U.N. peacekeepers

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations --  Even though it relinquished the Security Council presidency to Argentina on March 1, the United States will continue to push for action on Darfur, senior U.S. officials say.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said March 1 that he already has discussed Darfur during private consultations with the new Security Council president. The United States, Bolton said, is pushing for a peacekeeping resolution despite Sudan's opposition to expanded U.N. involvement and the African Union’s postponement of a final decision on handing off peacekeeping duties to the United Nations.

"We've used the month of our presidency of the Security Council to move this ball forward as fast as we could and as far as we could," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said February 28.  But, he added, it is important "to bring as many people on board as fully as possible and that's going to take time."

With U.N. officials calling the situation in Darfur serious, difficult and problematic, the international community is struggling to find a way to stop the killing of innocent villagers and forge a peace agreement between the government and rebels in the province. During February, the Security Council asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to begin planning for a large peacekeeping force, which the African Union (AU) said it could not mount.

But the council was unable to authorize a U.N. force by the end of February; it also failed to act on a recommendation by its Sudan Sanctions Committee panel of experts to impose sanctions against individual Sudanese who are blocking a peace agreement or committed gross human rights violations.

POLITICAL STALEMATE?

Sudan has taken a strong position against the United Nations taking over peacekeeping operations in Darfur, U.N. envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk said at a February 28 press conference at U.N. headquarters.  Nevertheless, Pronk said a strong, robust peacekeeping force is needed in Darfur where raiding of villages and killings continue.  But with only 7,000 peacekeepers, the AU has neither the troops on the ground nor the resources to do the job.

Describing the situation as a "political stalemate," Pronk said "the climate in Khartoum against the U.N. is heating up very strongly.  There are threats.  There are warnings.  There is talk about al-Qaida."

The fear, which is being manipulated by the government, is that the transition will not be to the United Nations but a western move to "bring Sudan into the same situation as Iraq a couple of years ago," he said.

When the African Union Peace and Security Council ministers meet March 10, Pronk said, "we do not know whether [they] will reconfirm its decision.  That is not certain any more.  What was supposed to be a formal political reconfirmation . . . is no longer sure."

Bolton was even less optimistic. "One week postponement now may signal other postponements to come, so each time there is a delay in our ability to do further contingency planning or make decisions on the nature of the force [it] pushes the timeline further out," he said March 1, adding, "That to me is a good reason why the council should not wait, why we should continue to press now to have a vote."

"Sudan is lobbying vigorously in Africa and elsewhere to avoid having the African Union follow through on its initial decision to agree to a U.N. force in Darfur, so I think it's important for the council to move quickly," Bolton said.

Pronk also said that there is genuine fear that al-Qaida operatives are moving into Sudan to take advantage of the situation, and the risk that "terrorist organizations like al-Qaida also will threaten leaders, governments which they see as sitting in the same quarter as the West or the international community which they despise."

Bolton said that the al-Qaida report "is one reason why we're been talking about the possibility of strengthening the arms embargo or making decisions on sanctions for people who are not facilitating the peace process."

For additional information, see Darfur Humanitarian Emergency.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)