Limited Darfur force could be deployed by October, Britain says / UN hosts high-level meeting to hasten Darfur peace deal / Doubts remain over Darfur force / Ban Ki-moon unveils trust fund to back diplomatic efforts to end Darfur conflict
Seven stories from over the course of today (some newer than others); updated to reflect a newer version of the Reuters story on the source page (although other new stories appear in a subsequent post):
From DPA (also here and here)...
A small amount of extra peacekeeping troops for Sudan's troubled Darfur region could be in place by October, officials said [on] Friday after a high-level meeting on Darfur at the United Nations.
Nigeria and Rwanda were considering sending 'a few battalions' to the region next month, according to [Mark] Malloch-Brown, Britain's secretary of state for Africa, Asia, and the UN, who spoke to reporters after the UN meeting, chaired by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Those limited forces, if sent, would be on their governments' own initiative. They would not be part of a disputed joint UN-African Union force of some 20,000 troops, finally approved by the UN Security Council in July, more than one year after rebels and the Sudanese government signed a shaky peace agreement.
A 'first wave' of the UN-AU force could be in place by the beginning of next year, Malloch-Brown said.
For months, Sudan had opposed a UN force, insisting that only African troops would be allowed into the region. Khartoum eventually agreed to the UN force after the Security Council agreed [that] it should have a primarily 'African character.'
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who attended the UN meeting, said [that] he was concerned with the slowness of the response so far.
'Here we are, 18 months after the signing of the Darfur [Peace Agreement], and we are still at the initial phase of establishing security,' he told reporters.
Negroponte said [that] he was 'hopeful' that the full UN-AU force could be deployed by spring 2008, in line with the timetable set by the Security Council.
About 300,000 people have been killed in fighting between government-backed Arab militias and African rebel groups in Darfur.
From AFP...
UN chief Ban Ki-moon opened a one-day ministerial meeting here [New York] Friday to breathe new life into a joint bid by the United Nations and the African Union (AU) to end civil strife in Sudan's western Darfur region.
Ban Ki-moon and Alpha Oumar Konare, the head of the AU Commission, were co-chairing the closed-door meeting, which got under way shortly after 3 pm (1900 GMT), with ministers or senior officials of nearly 30 countries or regional bodies taking part.
Ban's aides said [that] the meeting sought to speed up preparations for the deployment of a 26,000-strong joint AU-UN force to take over peacekeeping from nearly 6,000 under-equipped and underfunded AU troops.
The vanguard of the force, including a 315-member Chinese engineering unit, is expected to arrive in Darfur next month.
Friday's UN talks, coming four days before world leaders are to attend the annual UN General Assembly session, also aimed to provide political leadership to ensure the success of crunch talks in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, tentatively scheduled for October 27 between the Sudanese government and all Darfur rebels.
But [on] Thursday, a major Darfur rebel group called for the Tripoli talks to be delayed, saying [that] a ceasefire must first take hold in the war-ravaged region.
"True confidence-building measures are needed urgently on the ground. The first step should be a total halt to military operations in Darfur," Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) leader Ahmed Abdel Shafi said, accusing Khartoum of sponsoring "daily crimes" in the region.
And hardline Darfur rebel chief Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur's breakaway SLM faction is demanding full deployment of the planned joint AU-UN force in Darfur before it will take part in fresh bargaining with Khartoum.
The Tripoli meeting is to focus on broadening the Darfur [Peace Agreement] signed in May 2006 [in order] to include those rebel groups which did not sign it.
"Justice in Darfur must be on the agenda (of the meeting)," ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said here, adding that the talks must be an opportunity to remind Sudan's government of "its responsibility to arrest" war-crimes suspect Ahmed Haroun, Sudan's secretary of state for humanitarian affairs.
Last May, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Haroun and pro-government Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kosheib, who face a list of 42 and 50 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, respectively. But Sudan has refused to hand them over.
Humanitarian groups also kept the pressure on for the world community to provide security to beleaguered refugees and internally displaced people in Darfur and neighboring eastern Chad, especially women who are the target of rampant sexual violence.
"The people of Darfur have been suffering far too long already. Living in constant fear, they need and deserve security right now," said Greg Puley, head of the British charity Oxfam International's New York [office].
Also on the agenda of Friday's meeting will be the spillover of the Darfur conflict into neighboring Chad and Central African Republic, which both face a serious humanitarian challenge.
According to UN estimates, more than 200,000 people have died and some two million have been displaced in Darfur as a result of the combined effect of war and famine since the conflict erupted, more than four years ago.
Among those present at Friday's talks were the foreign ministers of Sudan, Congo [Republic], Egypt, Gabon, France, Ghana, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and Senegal, as well as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, British minister of state for Africa Lord Malloch-Brown, European Union foreign-policy chief Javier Solana, and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.
From the BBC...
Talks on Darfur at the UN have ended with disagreement over the deployment of peacekeepers in the troubled Sudanese region.
Sudan insists that there are more than enough African troops to deploy, but UN and African Union leaders said [that] there were still unresolved technical issues.
Correspondents say [that] not all African troops meet UN standards.
Meanwhile, a senior US official hinted at sanctions for rebel leaders refusing to go to October's Libya peace talks.
UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon co-chaired the meeting with the chairman of the African Union, Alpha Oumar Konare.
They also discussed increasing humanitarian assistance to Darfur.
Sudanese objections
Participants included the foreign ministers of Sudan, Congo [Republic], Egypt, Gabon, France, Ghana, and Rwanda, as well as US, UK, and EU officials, and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.
More than 26,000 AU and UN troops are due to be deployed to Darfur by early next year, in an attempt to bring an end to the four-year conflict.
The Sudanese government agreed to this force on the condition that it would be predominantly African.
But the BBC's Laura Trevelyan at the UN says that although more than enough African countries have agreed to contribute troops, not all of them meet the UN standards.
Attempts to find non-African countries have run into objections from the Sudanese, and to some extent the AU.
The Sudanese Foreign Minister, Lam Akol, told reporters [that] there were enough African troops to do the job.
The meeting was also set to prepare for peace talks on 27 October between the Sudanese government and rebel groups in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said [that] measures could be taken against rebel leaders who refused to attend.
From the AP...
Top diplomats from 26 countries met [on] Friday to give political momentum to upcoming peace talks in Darfur, and [to] push for an agreement on the composition of a new peacekeeping force that the U.N. warns will not be effective without key contributions from non-African countries.
New fighting broke out in Darfur this week, despite the Sudanese government's assurances that it was committed to a halt in hostilities in the run-up to the Oct. 27 peace talks in Libya. Rebels and observers said [that] the Sudanese air force bombed three villages, killing at least one child. One rebel faction said [that] it overran an army garrison [on] Thursday, killing more than a dozen troops.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was chairing Friday's meeting with African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, has expressed "alarm" that fighting was reported after Sudan gave its assurances during the secretary-general's visit to the region earlier this month. Foreign ministers and other top diplomats made no comment as they filed into the meeting.
The main goal was to map out a strategy for the negotiations, including how to persuade Darfur's fragmented rebel groups to sit down with the Sudanese government. Only one group signed the Darfur Peace Agreement with the government in 2006, and fighting has persisted.
One prominent rebel chief, Abdul Wahid Elnur, has rebuffed appeals from the United States and France to join negotiations in Libya, insisting [that] Darfur must first be completely pacified and the U.N. peacekeepers [be] deployed.
The conflict has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003, accusing it of discrimination and neglect. The government has been accused of responding by backing Arab militias, responsible for many of the conflict's atrocities. The government denies the charges.
The negotiations have also been plagued by disputes over the makeup of a 26,000-member joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force. U.N. diplomats said [that] the AU has expressed concern at offers by some Nordic countries and Uruguay. They did not elaborate, but Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has insisted the force be primarily African in character. He agreed to the deployment after months of international pressure and painstaking negotiations.
U.N. Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno has said [that] the force needs specialized aviation, transport, and logistical units not available in Africa, and stressed the need for more support from Europe.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said [that] he hoped [that] the African Union "would support the recommendations of the United Nations."
"It's very important that the basic concept is understood, which is that while the force would be predominantly African ... others can join in," he said. "There are specialized capabilities ... there is a need for others."
He said [that] the Sudanese government's pledge to cooperate will "be tested" with the deployment of the peacekeepers, meant to replace the 7,000-strong African Union force that has been unable to stem Darfur's bloodshed.
Rebels said [that] the Sudanese air force bombed three villages this week in rebel-held zones in North Darfur. A 12-year-old boy was killed and two people were injured, said Jar al-Naby, a local rebel commander. Aid workers in the zone confirmed the rebel's account.
"We're very surprised about these bombings," al-Naby said by satellite telephone. He said [that] his rebel faction wasn't currently fighting and had announced its intentions to join the negotiations in Tripoli, Libya.
In the central Jebel Marra mountains, another rebel faction announced [that] it killed more than a dozen troops at an army garrison on Thursday. The Sudanese military was not available for comment on either incident. But an international observer in Darfur confirmed [that] the army suffered about a dozen casualties in Jebel Marra.
Despite the bloodletting, U.N. and Sudanese government officials sounded a note of optimism at a ceremony in northern Darfur to mark the International Day of Peace, saying [that] the joint appearance was a sign of growing trust.
"This is a breakthrough, it's the first time [that] the U.N. is seen doing something in public with Sudanese officials in Darfur," said Ali Hamati, a U.N. spokesman. "It sets a precedent for us working together."
By Reuters' Evelyn Leopold (also here)...
(An earlier version is also still available on both AlertNet and Reuters Africa.)
Senior diplomats from 26 countries sought to give momentum on Friday to deployment of a peacekeeping force in Darfur and cease-fire negotiations, but divisions remained over who would supply the troops.
Meeting for more than four hours, the officials called on nations to pledge financial and other aid to the planned African Union-United Nations force of up to 26,000 troops and police for Sudan's western region.
Four years of warfare have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and driven 2.5 million people from homes in the region.
"Everybody recognizes that this is just the beginning of the hard part -- deployment and peacemaking," said Mark Malloch Brown, Britain's minister of state for Africa.
"Violence has not abated," he said, referring to renewed fighting this week in Darfur, especially in overcrowded camps for people chased out of their homes.
However, the composition of the peacekeeping force has revealed splits over the deployment of non-African troops, though both U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, who chaired the closed-door talks, denied [that] this was the case.
U.N. officials said [that] Sudan, backed by the AU, had turned down infantry from Thailand and Uruguay. Khartoum even rejected an engineering unit from Norway, although it pledged to allow non-African units for specialized tasks.
"We don't think [that] Sudan has anything to be afraid of, with respect to allowing and agreeing to some of these non-African specialized niche forces to participate in generating a peacekeeping force for Darfur," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told reporters.
He said [that] this would not "violate the principle of a predominantly African force" [that] the United Nations has approved.
Sudan's Foreign Minister, Akol Lam, said [that] African nations have supplied "190 percent" of the ground troops needed, and [that] other nations could help with logistics as well as funds.
Konare agreed, saying, "We have confirmed that we have sufficient offers on all fronts," adding: "I am sure that we will reach understanding on the very technical matters that we are discussing."
But Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, has said [that] not all African contingents had the proper equipment or training for various functions.
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS
Friday's meeting also insisted [that] all rebel groups attend peace talks with the government, scheduled for Oct. 27 in Libya, with Negroponte threatening sanctions, if [...] rebel leaders rejected the negotiations.
One key rebel leader, Paris-based Abdel Wahid Mohamed el-Nur, founder of the Sudan Liberation Movement, has refused to attend.
"If an important rebel group chooses not to attend ... that should not be a cost-free choice," Negroponte said. "The notion of sanctions is not limited to the government alone. It also relates to rebel groups' leaders."
The Libya meeting would seek to end a conflict that has generated one of the world's worst humanitarian crises and sparked U.S. accusations -- dismissed by Sudan -- of genocide.
Timing of full deployment is still up in the air, with some predicting early next year, but others expecting delays, particularly if specialized helicopter and transport units are not offered by Western nations.
"It's certainly not running ahead of schedule," Negroponte said. "The urgency is to get this done as quickly as possible.
"We think that if nothing else, a meeting such as this ... should be able to give some kind of impulse to get this force up and running as soon as possible," he said.
From the CBC...
The world community is scheduled to meet [on] Friday at the United Nations [in order] to discuss political negotiations to end the conflict in Sudan's embattled Darfur region and the deployment of a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force.
Ministers from 26 countries have been invited to attend Friday's meeting chaired by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare.
The UN and Western governments had pressed Sudan for months to accept a plan for a large joint force of 20,000 UN and African Union peacekeepers to replace the overwhelmed 7,000-strong African force now in Darfur.
Sudan initially accepted the hybrid peacekeeping plan in November, but then backtracked, before finally agreeing in June.
U.S. State Department spokesman Jason Small told CBC News on Friday [that] the meeting was a chance for the international community to maintain strong pressure on the Sudanese government to honour the agreement.
"We're watching them closely, and if we see any indication that they begin to obstruct or hinder the deployment of this peacekeeping force, then the international community is prepared to take further steps," Small said in an interview from Washington.
More than 200,000 people have died in the Darfur region of western Sudan and 2.5 million have become refugees since 2003, when local rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect.
Sudan's government is accused of unleashing in response a militia of Arab nomads known as the Janjaweed — a charge [that] Sudan denies.
Arrest of alleged war criminals critical, says ICC prosecutor
The meeting comes a day after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court urged world leaders to put justice high on the meeting's agenda, saying [that] there will be no peace in the region, if alleged war criminals remain free.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said [on] Thursday that Sudan's government must be reminded of its duty to arrest the country's humanitarian-affairs minister, Ahmed Harun, who faces charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"I'm concerned that silence by most states and international organizations on the subject of the arrest warrant has been understood in Khartoum as a weakening of international resolve in support of the law, and in support of the arrest of Ahmed Harun," he said. "It is time to break the silence."
Moreno-Ocampo said [that] Harun — suspected of involvement in the murder, rape, torture, and persecution of civilians in Darfur — is now in charge of the millions of people [that] he forced out of villages into camps.
But Sudan's UN ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, said [that] Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir told the UN secretary general in an earlier meeting that "in no way we are going to surrender any of our citizens to be prosecuted abroad."
"If there are any crimes … the people to do that is the Sudanese judicial system," he said.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today [Friday] announced the creation of a trust fund to support next month’s Darfur peace talks, after chairing a high-level meeting in which more than two dozen countries and regional groups pledged their support for the joint road-map of the United Nations and [the] African Union to end the conflict in the war-wracked Sudanese region.
Today’s meeting at UN Headquarters in New York was “very constructive [and] useful… We will continue to build upon what we have reaffirmed” in the lead-up to the peace talks between the Sudanese Government and Darfur’s many rebel groups on 27 October in Libya, Mr. Ban told journalists tonight.
Those talks must be the “final phase for a final settlement” of the Darfur conflict, which has led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people since 2003.
Mr. Ban, who co-chaired the high-level meeting with AU Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konaré, said [that] the trust fund would help facilitate the diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict, which has led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people since 2003.
He also said [that] he would soon appoint a special negotiator to spearhead efforts to bring the many parties to the talks in Libya, which will be conducted under the auspices of the UN and AU envoys for Darfur, Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim. Those talks must be the “final phase for a final settlement” of the Darfur conflict.
A joint AU-UN communiqué described the meeting as “a powerful illustration of the international community’s commitment to work with the Sudanese to achieve peace in Darfur.”
Representatives from 26 States, including Sudan, the permanent members of the Security Council, key nations from the region and members of the AU Peace and Security Council, as well as officials from the European Union and the League of Arab States, attended today’s meeting.
Mr. Ban said [that] there was unanimous support for the UN-AU three-track approach: securing a political solution; deploying the hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force (to be known as UNAMID); and providing humanitarian and recovery assistance to civilians.
Some 4 million Darfurians now depend on humanitarian aid because of the fighting between rebels, Government forces and allied Janjaweed militia, which has displaced at least 2.2 million people from their homes and sometimes spilled into neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic.
At full deployment UNAMID will have an estimated 26,000 troops and police officers, making it the largest peacekeeping operation in the world.
The Secretary-General said [that] participants today stressed the importance of all parties taking part in the 27 October talks, so that they are as “inclusive and decisive” as possible. Darfur’s rebel groups have become increasingly splintered since the conflict began.
In response to questions, Mr. Ban and Mr. Konaré reiterated their commitment to ensuring that UNAMID, which is slated to take over from the existing AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) at the start of next year, be deployed as quickly as possible.
Emphasizing the force will retain its predominantly African character, they noted that some specialist units will be provided by non-African countries, and they called on all Member States to make pledges so that force generation and deployment benchmarks can be met.
The communiqué voiced concern about the continuing violence in Darfur, an arid and impoverished region in the remote west of Sudan, and the recent deterioration in the humanitarian situation.
The AU and the UN “called on all parties to exercise full restraint, abide by previous commitments, and cease all hostilities in the lead-up to political negotiations.”
It also noted that the implementation of the January 2005 [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] ending the separate north-south civil war must not be neglected.
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