Jan Pronk blogs the big question: Will the UN decide to send a peace keeping force?

The big question since the signing of the Abuja Peace Agreement is: will the UN send a peace keeping force to Darfur? Initially the Government said that this would no longer be necessary. However, there is not yet peace. Despite its misgivings concerning a recent resolution of the UN Security Council the Government now seems to be willing to accede. Read more by UN SGSR Jan Pronk in his blog entry May 27, 2006. Two excerpts:

I have never understood why the international observers present in Abuja refused to put up a reference to a UN force in the agreement, while at the same time in New York and Washington were pressing the UN to prepare itself for the transition. However, by signing the agreement parties are bound to abide all Security Council resolutions concerning Darfur. The preamble of the agreement explicitly says so. That will imply also possible future resolutions concerning a transition. [- edit -]

President Beshir has agreed to the proposal to send an assessment mission to Darfur. That is the result of Brahimi's visit. So, we are one step further. The next steps will have to be taken later on. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Mustapha has stated that the phase of confrontation between Sudan and the United nations is over. "We are now entering the phase of negotiations". Those negotiations will be difficult. Sudan is clearly of the opinion that the UN can only come under Chapter 6 of the Charter, that means: upon the invitation of the sovereign state Sudan. That would be an operation similar to the one in Southern Sudan. However, the Arab militia, the Janjaweed, the rogue commanders and the rebel movements that have not agreed to peace will require a much more robust mandate. The fact that since the peace agreement has been signed, four weeks ago, militia are still attacking villages and rebel positions, makes this all the more necessary.

Click on the images at Jan Pronk's blog to see amazing close ups of a haboob (sand storm) over Khartoum.
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Notable quote from Jan Pronk's blog entry May 27, 2006:

Brahimi, a former minister of Foreign Affairs of Algiers, and since many years one of the most experienced diplomatic advisors of Kofi Annan, was able to dispel the Sudanese apprehensions. "Do you really believe that I, having fought colonialism in my country and later on elsewhere in Africa, at the end of my career would lend myself to support re-colonisation?"
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UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in the Sudan, Jan Pronk, reading a book 'The New Rulers of the World' by John Pilger.

'Als ik vlieg heb ik tijd om boeken te lezen. Ik lees ook NRC Handelsblad, met een vertraging van een maand. Vind ik niet erg.' Naast Pronk een Roemeense bodyguard. [In English, I guess, it says: next to Pronk is his/an Italian bodyguard] (Source: Jan Pronk Weblog)