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SUDAN WANTS A JOINT FORCE TO MAINTAIN PEACE IN DARFUR January 16, 2006
Apunyu Bonny
(SomaliNet) In a bid to bring peace to a war torn Darfur region, Sudan has proposed the formation of a tripartite force including its own troops, rebel movements and the African Union (AU). AOL Reported Sunday.
Previously there were expectations that the United Nations would send its own forces to the war-torn region of western Sudan in a bid to quell the violence AU peacekeepers have failed to contain.
"We have proposed at the recent AU Peace and Security Council meeting in Addis Ababa the formation of a joint force," said foreign ministry spokesperson Jamal Mohamed Abraham.
Since rebel movements want Western troops to take over from the close to 7 000 AU peacekeepers who have been deployed since 2004 such a proposal was likely to be fiercely opposed. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk, told the UN Security Council on Friday that the international community had failed to address the situation in Darfur and needed to dispatch a more robust force.
While Khartoum has sought to assert its right to choose who would be in charge of peacekeeping operations, the AU itself has warned Sudan it would be bound by any AU decision allowing a UN deployment. During a press conference on Saturday, Foreign Minister Lam Akol said Sudan "would explore all alternatives" to a UN deployment.
Up to 300 000 people have died and 2,4 million have been displaced since Darfur rebels complaining of marginalisation by Khartoum launched an uprising which was brutally repressed by government forces and their proxy militias.
The UN Security Council has demanded prosecution before the International Criminal Court in The Hague of a reported 51 suspects, including high-ranking Sudanese government officials, identified by a UN commission of inquiry.
Meanwhile rebel groups have warned they would pull out of AU-sponsored peace talks in Abuja if Sudan took the chair of the pan-African body during its January 23-24 summit in Khartoum.