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Annan sends envoys to Sudan to speed up plans for UN peacekeeping force in Darfur

19 May 2006 – The Sudanese Government has not yet given the green light for an assessment team to prepare for a United Nations peacekeeping force in its strife-torn Darfur region and Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending two high-level officials to Khartoum, the capital, for intensified talks next week, a spokesman said today.

With the clock ticking down to a deadline imposed by the Security Council for the deployment of such a team, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Mr. Annan’s Special Envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, and Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi were expected to begin talks in Khartoum on Tuesday or Wednesday.

“They will discuss what role the UN will play in Darfur in the implementation of the peace agreement and they’re part of our preparation for the proposed transition,” Mr. Dujarric said of plans for a UN force to take over from the current undermanned African Union (AU) mission following a peace agreement earlier this month between the Government and one of Darfur’s rebel groups.

“We’re very much aware of the timeframe imposed by the Security Council as is the Sudanese Government and we’re trying to move things along as quickly as possible,” he added, referring to last Tuesday’s resolution calling for deployment of a joint African Union-UN assessment team within one week to prepare for a UN peacekeeping operation.

Mr. Annan has already written to Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir seeking his support for a stronger UN force to replace the 7,000-memberAU mission (AMIS) deployed in Darfur, where fighting between the Government, pro-government militias and rebels has killed scores of thousands of people and uprooted 2 million more in the last three years.

He has not spoken to Mr. al-Bashir, but in the last few days conferred by phone with Vice President Ali Osman Taha and a special adviser to the president. Contacts were also going on with the Sudanese mission at UN Headquarters in New York.

“The Secretary-General’s message is clear: there is not a moment to lose both on the humanitarian front, on the funding,” Mr. Dujarric said, adding that it was essential that in the meantime the international community support the under-funded and understaffed AMIS.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has said that once host country approval is given, it would take up to six months or more to get a more numerous UN force fully operational. Meanwhile, it was vital that the AU force receive a more robust mandate to protect the civilian population and that its number at least double, he added.

Today, Mr. Dujarric said potential force contributors should already start preparing. “Member states who have the capability should start thinking now about they will be able to offer,” he noted. “Just because people have not been officially approached doesn’t mean that they can’t start thinking about what will happen when we come knocking.”