29 Jun 2006: ISS Today: UN Wants to go to Darfur now to help African Union

29 June 2006: UN wants to go to Darfur now to help African Union
Evelyn Leopold, Reuters

 

The United Nations should immediately beef up the African Union force in Sudan`s Darfur region with communications, transport and other help in preparation for its own operation, the head of U.N. peacekeeping said on Tuesday. Although Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has rejected a U.N. force, the world body might be able to gain a foothold in Darfur by augmenting the African Union`s 7,000-strong monitoring operation, said U.N. Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno. "We believe that the United Nations can help the African mission," he told reporters. "We did not get any objection from the government of Sudan so we are going to work in earnest on that…. If there is an evolution in the position of the government of Sudan, we will be in a much better position to deploy a U.N. mission," Guehenno said.

 

Commentary

 
The most recent news reports from Sudan reflect the high level of uncertainty around the possibility of a peacekeeping role for the United Nations in Darfur. This comes on the heels of a public rejection last week of such a force by Sudanese President Omer el Bashir. Speaking to both an international and, more importantly, a domestic audience, Bashir explicitly linked a UN force to the ‘colonisation’ of Sudan. What these sentiments reflect is not a disengagement from the ‘West’ as such, but an increasing need to legitimise the NCP in the domestic Sudanese context.

 

 

Certainly, President Bashir is looking to reaffirm his party’s credentials in the run up to the 17th anniversary of the National Salvation regime that took power in 1989. It is within the context of these domestic manoeuvrings that we should consider the current position taken by the ruling party. Certainly, many observers have described the Darfur wars as a proxy struggle for the soul of Khartoum, with the hands of Hassan al Turabi and the Sudanese People Liberation Movement (SPLM) playing key roles in exacerbating the conflict. The attention to localised politics in Sudan and the opportunities for change through this framework have been overshadowed by the emphasis on both the supremacy of the Darfur Peace Agreement and the need for a United Nations force.

 

As chair of the AU Peace and Security Council, South Africa’s Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, announced this week that the African force would not continue beyond its 30 September mandate, unless such an extension was supported by the United Nations. This is because of financial and logistical constraints on the continued presence of the 7,000-strong force in Darfur. Between July and the end of September 2006, the African Union will require immense assistance, particularly in the areas of communications and air-transport. In addition, the onset of the rainy season will significantly increase the costs of humanitarian access and monitoring activities.

 

The upcoming African Union Summit in Banjul in Gambia will be dominated by the question of Darfur, with many analysts expecting that UN secretary-general Kofi Annan will try to re-engage President Bashir on the sidelines of the meeting. Moreover the donor meeting on Darfur to be held in the Netherlands on 18 July will also define the extent to which AMIS can remain a relevant actor in Darfur. Finally, the most recent rejection of the DPA by a substantial grouping within the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) Minnawi faction, which signed the peace agreement, suggests that rather than concentrating on the type of military force needed to keep the peace in Darfur, the international community should refocus their attention on the substantive questions around the legitimacy of the DPA from a local community perspective.

 

Mariam Bibi Jooma