Diplomats Cautiously Optimistic on Darfur Peacekeepers
17 April 2007
Test is in implementation, U.S. Ambassador Wolff says
United Nations -- The Security Council has welcomed Sudan's acceptance of increased U.N. support for peacekeepers in Darfur, but council members are proceeding cautiously until the much-needed reinforcements are actually on the ground in the region.
"The test is going to be the implementation," said U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff.
"I sense a general sense of frustration among council members that every time there is an indication that something has been agreed to, then conditions are set up or delays are imposed," Wolff said.
"We've been down this path before," he told journalists after a special Security Council session on Darfur. "So we'll see if it happens when it happens." (See related article.)
After stalling for five months, on April 16 Sudan informed the United Nations that it would accept the so-called "heavy support package" from the United Nations to help bolster the beleaguered 7,000 African Union (AU) peacekeeping force now in the region. The package includes 3,000 U.N. police and military personnel, along with six helicopter gunships, and is the first significant U.N. contribution to the AU troops. Sudan had been opposing the helicopters.
The "heavy support package" is the second phase of a three-step plan that will ultimately lead to a hybrid U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force of 17,000 troops and 3,000 police officers throughout Darfur. The first-phase "light support package" of technical support, police advisers and civilian staff has already been deployed. (See related article.)
After a visit to Sudan April 16, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said the hybrid force was critical.
"We must move quickly to a larger hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force with a single unified chain of command that conforms to U.N. standards and practices," Negroponte told journalists in Khartoum.
Sudan faces "continued and possibly even intensified international isolation" if it doesn't implement the U.N. plan, Negroponte said.
At U.N. headquarters, the 15-nation Security Council met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, top U.N. officials involved in Darfur and senior officials of the African Union, including Chairman Alpha Oumar Konaré, to discuss the major aspects of the political process, humanitarian access and peacekeeping.
Ban called Sudan's agreement "a very positive sign." He said the U.N. and the AU intend "to move quickly to prepare for the deployment of the heavy support package and the hybrid force" while also intensifying diplomatic efforts to facilitate peace agreements and protect civilians in Darfur.
"The people in Darfur have suffered too much and too long. The international community should do whatever we can do at this time," Ban said.
U.S. Ambassador Wolff said that Security Council and African Union members have "a common sense of purpose ... of the urgency for movement and the need for vigilance. This has been going on far too long."
The timeline for expanding the Darfur peacekeeping force has slipped several times in the past year. The mandate for the African Union force expires in "just about 75 days," the ambassador noted.
Wolff emphasized that the international community expects Sudan to accept the United Nations-African Union peacekeeping operation.
"There is no doubt among council members -- or, for that matter, the AU representatives here -- that the hybrid force is the natural follow-on phase to the light support package and now the heavy support package. The heavy support package ... is a transitional contribution to allow the hybrid force to get into place," the ambassador said.
The United States and the United Kingdom have been discussing a resolution that would increase sanctions on Sudan for its failure to cooperate on Darfur. (See related article.)
U.S. and British officials said that no decision has been made on whether to press for sanctions in light of Sudan's acceptance. A decision will be made after Negroponte returns from his visit to Sudan and other countries in the region later in the week, Wolff said.
As the violence, deaths and sufferings continue, the "frustration level rises and the tolerance" for Khartoum's delays diminishes and "people are sorting the need for other measures," Wolff said.
The United Nations has estimated that more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2 million others displaced from their homes in Darfur since 2003.
For more information on U.S. policy, see Darfur Humanitarian Emergency.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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