Thursday, August 24, 2006

Sudan's leader asks UNSC to delay UN force to give him time to bring peace to Darfur

My take on the following excerpt from today's AP report by Edith Lederer is that Sudanese President Bashir has explained in writing to the UN Security Council that Sudan's six-month plan for Darfur is to implement the Darfur Peace Agreement calling for GoS/AU/UN to "return security and humanitarian situation in Darfur to normal", that he wants to be given time to succeed in this within six months, and urges the Council to delay transferring peacekeeping duties to a UN force because such a force would lead to violence and UNMANAGEABLE CONFRONTATIONS among all parties in Darfur, including the UN forces. Also, I take the President's letter to mean Sudan won't be explaining its plan further to an open UN Security Council next week. Ball appears now to be in Arab League court. Everyone has to pull together to fund the AU in Darfur for 6 months from Sep 30 and ensure it receives the right equipment asap.

Excerpt from AP report Aug 23, 2006 (via Forbes.com):
Sudan's president asked the UN Security Council to give him time to bring peace to conflict-wracked Darfur and urged it to delay action on transferring peacekeeping duties to a UN force, according to a letter circulated Wednesday.

Omar al-Bashir said there was strong opposition from residents and leaders in Darfur to the UN force and warned that deployment would lead "to acts of violence and unmanageable confrontations among all parties in Darfur, including the United Nations forces."

Al-Bashir's letter seeking more time to restore peace appeared to be a response to an invitation from the current Security Council president to the Sudanese government and other key players in Darfur to a meeting Monday to discuss the draft resolution.

The Security Council was scheduled to meet Thursday morning to discuss Al-Bashir's letter.

In the letter, Al-Bashir said he wants to concentrate on implementing the peace agreement under a six-month plan he already submitted to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He said it calls for the government, in cooperation with the African Union and U.N. agencies, to "return the security and humanitarian situation in Darfur to normal."

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