Sudan expected to resist U.S. pressure on Darfur

Source: CNN.
April 9, 2007.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) -- Sudan is unlikely to ease its opposition to the deployment of U.N. troops in Darfur this week when a top U.S. official visits, but there are signs it may be flexible on boosting African troops in the troubled region.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is expected to deliver a tough message from Washington, which has threatened new measures to try to break Sudan's resistance to international troops to back the ill-equipped African Union forces

The AU operates an overstretched 7,000-strong force in Darfur, where violence has persisted despite a 2006 peace agreement between the government and one rebel faction. Unidentified gunmen killed five AU troops last week.

Negroponte also will visit Chad and Libya, two other players in the Darfur conflict. It is not clear when he will arrive in Sudan on a regional tour.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who is known for his diplomatic skills and is promoting his country as a mediator in African affairs, will arrive in Sudan on Tuesday and is expected to discuss the Darfur issue.

At the heart of the debate is the outcome of a November meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The United Nations says Khartoum agreed then to a three-phase plan that would end with a hybrid AU-U.N. operation in Darfur.

Sudan said it only agreed to the first two phases of U.N. logistical and financial support.

After a meeting with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday, African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare backed Khartoum, saying that there had been a clear agreement in Addis Ababa that there would be a hybrid force consisting of an African force under AU command, with logistical, financial and administrative assistance from the United Nations.

But he said the size of the African force had yet to be determined. The AU and United Nations were holding discussions on the issue Monday in a technical meeting in Addis Ababa.

Al-Bashir, who says U.N. troops would amount to foreign occupation, has made a vague reference to "reviewing" issues related to Darfur.

U.S. officials have said they were close to imposing new measures against Sudan, but an announcement appears to have been put on hold after U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he wanted more time to convince Bashir to accept a hybrid force.

The measures contemplated include adding more firms to a U.S. sanctions list as well as further limits on Sudanese firms doing business in dollars and slapping travel and banking restrictions on at least three more Sudanese individuals.

The United States also aims to pressure Bashir militarily by helping rebuild the forces of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, which was at war with the north until a 2005 peace deal.

But Sudan, which has faced little pressure from the African Union and enjoys growing ties with China, has remained defiant.

State television gave prominence to a visit by the China's special envoy, Zhai Juan, who visited Darfur camps for the displaced and said international pressure would only hurt efforts to ease the suffering there.

Experts estimate that 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million fled their homes in Darfur since the conflict flared in 2003, when rebels took up arms against the central government. Khartoum says 9,000 died.

Sudan accused European countries on Saturday of withholding support for African Union troops in Darfur to try to force the need for U.N. military intervention.

Chad may consider U.N. police to protect Darfur refugees

CNN March 1, 2007.

N'DJAMENA, Chad (AP) -- Chad's government is voicing opposition to a U.N. plan to deploy troops along its border with Sudan to protect tens of thousands of people who have sought refuge there from the conflict in neighboring Darfur.

The U.N. Security Council is considering sending up to 10,000 troops to Chad, largely because Sudan's government has resisted efforts to send U.N. peacekeepers to the Darfur region itself.

The goal of the mission would be to protect refugees and aid workers, and monitor borders to reduce cross-border attacks.

Djidda Moussa Outman, Chad's minister of foreign affairs, said late Wednesday that Chad had never accepted the idea of a military force of "whatever nature" on its eastern border.

"It was more a question of deploying a civil force made up of police and gendarmes with the aim of protecting the camps of Sudanese refugees, the displaced persons and humanitarian workers in the region," Outman told diplomats representing Security Council members in the Chadian capital, N'djamena.

By "displaced persons," he was referring to the many Chadians who have fled their homes because of an insurgency in the region.

Rebels bent on toppling Chadian President Idriss Deby have clashed sporadically with the government since 2005. They have been able to exploit volatility in Sudan to establish rear bases in Darfur.

Deby expressed concerns about the deployment of a U.N. military force during the Security Council's closed consultations on the issue this week, diplomats at the U.N. said.

Deby is worried about inflaming tensions with Sudan. The two countries have strained relations because Chad supports the Darfur rebellion against the Sudanese government, and Sudan strongly backs the Chadian rebels based in Darfur.

Of the 2.5 million people who have fled Darfur, 230,000 have ended up in refugee camps inside Chad. There are also 90,000 internally displaced Chadians living in camps close to the border.

More than 200,000 people have died since ethnic African tribesmen in Darfur took up arms four years ago, complaining of discrimination by the Arab-dominated Sudanese government.

The U.N. blames the Sudanese government's counterinsurgency for the bulk of the atrocities. Khartoum denies the allegations.

Key facts about Darfur

February 26, 2006.

(Reuters) -- The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor will name the first suspects accused of committing war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region on Tuesday.

Here are some facts about the conflict in the Darfur region.

The conflict.

• Rebels in Sudan's western region of Darfur rose up against the government in February 2003, saying Khartoum discriminated against non-Arab farmers there.
• Khartoum mobilised proxy Arab militia to help quell the revolt. Some militiamen, known locally as Janjaweed, pillaged and burned villages, and killed civilians. The government has called the Janjaweed outlaws and denied supporting them.
• Experts have estimated 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in the region since early 2003, some crossing the border into Chad exacerbating a refugee crisis there.
• The United Nations calls Darfur one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The United States says the violence in Darfur amounts to genocide.

Cease-fires:

• A ceasefire was agreed in Darfur in April 2004 and the African Union eventually sent nearly 7,000 peacekeepers with a mandate to monitor the peace and protect those displaced in the camps. The ceasefire has been violated frequently, with fighting blamed on government troops, rebels and Janjaweed militias.
• A peace deal in May 2006 was signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions. The agreement was almost immediately rejected by many people in Darfur who said it did not go far enough in ensuring their security. A new rebel coalition has since formed and renewed hostilities with the government.

Peacekeeping force for Darfur:

• In August 2006, the U.N Security Council adopted a resolution on deploying a 22,500-strong peacekeeping force in Darfur to replace and absorb African Union forces who have been unable to stem the violence in western Sudan.
• It invited the consent of Sudan, which has so far refused.
  Then-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan suggested a hybrid force, which Khartoum also rejected. But Sudan has agreed to allow a "hybrid operation", involving technical U.N. support personnel, to deploy to Darfur to help the AU. It has allowed the first phase of that three-phased deployment to proceed but has balked at phase two, which involves some 3,000 U.N. personnel, as well as equipment.

Source: CNN.

NOTE: Consider the source and the outcome so far. I give them below a failing grade. I call it complicit.