ISS Seminar: The AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur: A Force Commanders Perspectives on the Pitfalls, Challenges and Prospects of Mandate Implementati

Date: 2008-10-01 to Invalid date

ISS Seminar: The AU-UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur: A Force Commanders Perspectives on the Pitfalls, Challenges and Prospects of Mandate Implementation in a Complex Mission
Pretoria, 1 October 2008

 

Hosted by the ISS Training for Peace in Africa Programme

 

The expectations that greeted the deployment of the AU Mission in Darfur (AMIS) soon disappeared when the Mission proved incapable of achieving an ambitious AU humanitarian mandate. In response to this, the United Nations Security Council, acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, passed Resolution 1769 (2007) authorising UNAMID—AU/UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur to a sigh of relief of the international community and the vulnerable population in Darfur. Among other things UNAMID was mandated to:

 

…take all necessary action to support implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement…and to ensure the security and freedom of movement of its own personnel and humanitarian workers…[as well as] prevent the disruption of implementation and armed attacks, and protect civilians without prejudice to the responsibility of Government of Sudan.

 

Indeed the international Community and the beleaguered people of Darfur are justified to expect the UN-AU Hybrid Operation to do a better job than the AU on its own. Unfortunately for all the stakeholders with an interest in the outcome of a speedy resolution of the conflict within Darfur, not much appears to have changed 10 months after the transfer of the peacekeeping mandate to UNAMID. Not surprisingly, therefore, powerful voices within the international community have almost accused UNAMID of the same impotence that bedeviled AMIS.

 

It therefore leaves us with some key questions begging for answers: Does the acquiescence of the UN and the international community to the notion of a ‘predominantly African force’ amount to abandonment of the people of Darfur? Has Resolution 1769 (2007) with its compromises contributed to a ‘victory for Sudanese diplomacy’ as claimed by Sudan itself? What is the potential impact of the indictment of President Bashir on UNAMID’s protection mandate?

 

The seminar will provide a platform for no less a person than Lieutenant General Martin Luther Agwai, UNAMID Force Commander, to share his own perspectives on these crucial questions, and thereby help to deepen practical understanding of the peacekeeping dynamics of the conflict in Sudan’s troubled region of Darfur.

 

Speaker: Lieutenant General Martin Luther Agwai, UNAMID Force Commander; Former Force Commander of UNAMSIL and Military Advisor to the UN Secretary General in UN HQ.

 

Date: 1 October 2008
Time: 09:30 – 12:00 (preceded by tea)
Venue: ISS Conference Room, Block C, Brtooklyn Court, Veale Street, New Muckleneuck, Pretoria
(Parking at Brooklyn Mall and ABSA Court)

 

RSVP: Ms Pertunia Mothiba, E-mail: [email protected]; Tel: (012) 346-9500; Fax: (012) 460-0997 / 8

 

Seminar Documentation