Darfur refugees in ZamZam Camp watch World Cup in a hut

Report from Ireland Online June 15, 2006:

The hut of thatch walls was as rickety and windblown as any other in Zamzam Camp for refugees on the sand dunes of western Sudan, but dozens of men and boys squeezed inside to watch the TV broadcasts of the World Cup.

"It's so ... different," said 11-year-old Abdelazziz Adam, pointing to the lush green grass of a German soccer stadium.

Many in the hut were too poor to pay the admission fee, and the refugees with a different view of the May 5 peace accord watched the match from a separate cinema-hut.

"I've come every afternoon since the cup began," said Adam, turning his back on the open door that let in gusts of sand.

His eyes fixated on the screen, Adam clung to his shoe-polisher's box.

Adam said he polished shoes every morning to pay for his ticket to the hut. At 50 Sudanese dinars (about 17c), the sum is a fortune for Darfur's refugees. Most are farmers who have lost all their possessions in the militia raids that have plagued this vast, arid region since the fighting began in February 2003.

"The ticket is costing me more than half the money I earned this morning," Adam said. He said he attended school, but he was evasive when asked how he fitted it in. He claimed he was currently on holiday.

Adam said he could not remember how long he had been at Zamzam, a camp where some 40,000 people take refuge from the Janjaweed militia, who are blamed for most of the atrocities in a war that has killed more than 180,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.

"We left my village after the Janjaweed attacked and killed my uncle," Adam said. His mother died of sickness shortly after the family arrived at Zamzam.

The hut's manager, Elfateh Ishat, said he bought the satellite dish and TV sets a few months ago with about Euros 1,755 that he saved while working as a paramedic for an aid agency.

He began to recoup his money only when the World Cup started last week, drawing more than 100 people a day to his hut.

"The problem is that they've got no money, so I have to let many of them in for free," Ishat said.

"They give me what they can in return," he said, slapping hands with members of the audience in an African gesture of friendship.

Dressed in white gowns with a dagger on their left side, most of the spectators hailed from the Fur tribe - Darfur means "land of the Fur".

Ishat said his customers used to include members of the camp's other important tribe, Zaghawa, but that relations had soured since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement on May 5.

While the leader of the main Darfur rebel group, Minni Minnawi, a Zaghawa signed the accord with the Sudanese government, the dissident rebel leader Abdelwahid Elnur, a Fur, refused.

Zamzam camp consists mostly of Elnur supporters but it stands close to Minnawi's bases. Inside the camp, discussion of the peace agreement has become a taboo.

Ishat said the Zaghawas had created their own venue to watch the game, "but I heard it's much less nice and smaller".

Wearing the purple jersey of Nigeria's World Cup team, spectator Assadis Abdallah said most people in Zamzam wanted South Africa to win the tournament as it was the African side with the best chance. "We all love football here," he said.

Most refugees cannot leave the camp for fear of the militia that roam the area, killing men and raping women, Abdallah said.

"There's not much else to do here anyway than watch the soccer," he said, sitting in the hut among an entirely male audience.

Outside the hut, 11-year-old Asma Adham said she and the girls around her would not mind watching a World Cup game, but they had neither the money nor the time.

"There's water to fetch, firewood to collect, and the children to look after," said Adham, who was taking care of her one-year-old sister.

"Soccer is just for boys," she said.

Darfur's JEM rebels excluded from E Sudan peace talks

IRIN report June 14 via Reuters says peace talks aimed at ending a simmering civil conflict in eastern Sudan are not expected to become a drawn-out process, Sudanese authorities said. Excerpt:

The eastern rebels accuse the Sudanese government of marginalising the remote regions of the country and demand greater autonomy.

The EF - an alliance between two rebel movements, the Beja Congress and a smaller insurgency, the Rashaida Free Lions - has been active in the poor region near the Eritrean border, but fighting is sporadic and on a small scale.

Other rebel groups, such as the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which is also active in Darfur, have gained importance but been kept outside the negotiations, however. Observers fear their exclusion might derail a potential eastern peace deal.

"We do not accept the decision to exclude us from the talks between the Eastern Front and Khartoum," said JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim in Asmara on Tuesday. "Khartoum will not get peace if we don't participate in the talks," he added, warning that JEM's presence in the east could not be ignored.

El-Samani acknowledged JEM's geographical presence in the east, but stressed they had no role to play at the peace talks. "They have not been invited for the simple reason that they have nothing to do with the Eastern Front talks - by no means - because they are from Darfur," he said.

Note, the report points out Eastern Sudan is a strategic region that includes Port Sudan - the country's economic lifeline, through which most of its foreign trade passes - the oil pipeline, many irrigated and semi-mechanised agricultural schemes, and a long border with Eritrea, with whom Sudan has had rocky relations for the past 12 years.

If fighting between Darfur's rebel factions doesn't stop soon, thousands will starve warns German aid agency

Deutsche Welthungerhilfe has been forced to halt its relief supplies in many areas of Darfur. 385,000 people will therefore not receive food rations in June and are thus at risk of starvation. The reason behind this is the fighting going on for weeks between various groups of the SLA. On the 5th May 2006 a peace treaty was signed by the government in Khartoum and the SLA. However, this was not recognised by all the rebel groups. Since then relief organisations have not been able to access SLA-dominated areas.

"If fighting between rebel factions doesn't stop soon then thousands of people will starve," warned regional coordinator, Johan van der Kamp. "Many people received their last monthly rations at the end of May and now have nothing left." The distribution of seed has also been stopped - just before the rainy season. This means people will be unable to sow the fields and that next year there will be no harvest. - ReliefWeb June 14, 2006.

Job Vacancy: GOAL Field Coordinator, Kutum, North Darfur

See OneWorld.net. Closing date July 13, 2006. CVs should be sent to: recruitment@goal.ie

Million pound idea: Belu's biodegradable water bottle is made of corn and will help fund water projects in Africa

Good news from England. Pablo Halkyard at PSD Blog - The World Bank Group points out the economics and ethics of bottled water and says an English company named belu has developed a biodegradable bottle for its water AND donates its profits to projects with WaterAid in India and Africa.



Photo and caption via Treehugger: This is the first biodegradable bottle on sale in Britain. It is made of corn and breaks down by commercial composting methods in 12 weeks, and by home composting in about a year. The corn is grown in 100 days and can return to the soil in 100 days. The water is from deep wells in Shropshire and is sold in some major supermarket chains.

belu is a small company founded with a goal to finance clean-water projects around the world. They are part of a growing group of ethical entrepreneurs who are turning their businesses and profits towards having an impact on the world's problems. Their intention is to generate one million GBP profit and spend it on water projects. The first is in India where they are building wells and hand pumps and sanitation facilities. The second is in Mali Africa where they are providing clean water and sanitation to a community of 10,000 people.

UN Security Council delegation fear Darfur war could destabilise Africa

AP report by Edith Lederer June 12, 2006 (via Cron.com) U.N. visitors fear Darfur war could destabilise Africa - Delegation calls Sudan peace vital to the entire region:

KINSHASA, CONGO - A U.N. Security Council delegation wrapped up its Africa trip Monday with a sense of urgency for finding ways to bring peace in the three-year conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

During their final stop in Congo, which is just emerging from its own war, council members were warned that all of central Africa could be destabilized by the fighting in Darfur, which has killed at least 180,000 people and forced 2 million to flee their homes.

"Peace in Darfur is basic to peace in Sudan, in Chad, in the subregion, and perhaps more widely," said Britain's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry. "We've learned a lot. We've seen the camps. ... We've had a very good feel for it, and now we've got to go back and see if we can draw some conclusions."

France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said he was "very reassured" that the Security Council's plan for a U.N. military force to take over peacekeeping in Darfur from a 7,000-soldier African Union mission should be the next step in the process.

But the Sudanese government still must give its approval. It has so far been reluctant, but it also is wary of directly opposing the inter-national community when both the African Union and the United Nations say U.N. peacekeepers are needed.

"What we are doing is to try to have this train, which already left, arriving to the station in Darfur, and the question now is to deploy a force there to do the whole thing right - and it's very complex," de la Sabliere said.

Decades of low-level clashes in Darfur over land and water erupted into war in early 2003 when ethnic African rebels based in farming villages rose up against Sudan's Arab-led government, which responded by unleashing the nomadic Arab militias known as janjaweed.

The janjaweed have been accused of widespread atrocities against farm villagers.

Sudan's leaders deny backing the militias, but agreed under a May 5 peace agreement with the largest rebel group to disarm and disband the janjaweed.

Darfur, Who Started It? Timelines and UNMIS Background

In his blog entry entitled "Darfur, Who Started It?" American blogger Eugene Oregon (not his real name) of Coalition for Darfur (in Washington D.C., I think) says he wants to try and set the record straight about how, when and why the Darfur rebellion started, implying that Alan Kuperman, the UN and Reuters et al get it wrong when referring to Feb 2003 as the date when the Darfur rebellion began after the two main rebel groups in Darfur, SLA and JEM, took up arms and began attacking government forces and installations in Darfur in protest of being marginalised and neglected by Khartoum.

On this question, it would take a book to explain and there are too many reports in the archives here at Sudan Watch for me to look up and simply point out right now. Off the top of my head, most reports are along the lines of the timelines by UN and CBC (see here below) and the following excerpt from Background report by UN Mission in the Sudan:

The conflict between the North and the South began in 1955, and has continued for all but eleven of the 49 years that Sudan has been independent. [The Sudan gained independence from British-Egyptian rule on 1 January 1956.] For the past two decades, the Government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), the main rebel movement in the south, have fought over resources, power, the role of religion in the state and self-determination.

Darfur

The civil war in the south has concluded with the signing of the peace agreement on 9 January 2005, yet another has continued in the Darfur region in the country's west, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 1.8 million others displaced or have fled to neighbouring Chad since rebel groups took up arms against the Sudanese Government in early 2003, partly in protest at the distribution of economic resources.

Excerpts from UN, CBC, Reuters, Islamic Relief, BBC, Human Rights Watch:

UN - Darfur Timeline: March 2003 - Fighting breaks out in the Darfur region of western Sudan between Government forces and rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

CBC - Timeline of events since fighting began in Darfur, Sudan: In April 2003, refugees began arriving in eastern Chad to escape the conflict that erupted after the two main rebel groups in Darfur, SLA and JEM, began attacking government forces and installations in Darfur, western Sudan.

Reuters - Darfur conflict at a glance - Conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region began in 2003 when two rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), rose up against the government, accusing it of neglect. The government's response was swift and brutal.

Islamic Relief - Darfur Timeline: February - April 2003 - Emergence of SLA and JEM rebel movements in Darfur, who begin to campaign against the marginalisation of the region.; SLA launch surprise attacks on towns in northern Darfur; Refugees begin arriving in eastern Chad to escape the conflict. Large numbers of civilians flee their homes.

BBC Timeline: Sudan: 2003 February - Rebels in western region of Darfur rise up against government, claiming the region is being neglected by Khartoum.

Human Rights Watch: Since February 2003, Sudanese government forces and allied, government-backed militias known internationally as the "Janjaweed" have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of "ethnic cleansing" in Darfur in the context of a military counter-insurgency campaign against rebel groups known as the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) ... the conflict in Darfur in 2003-2004 and the humanitarian crisis it has produced is of an entirely different scale, gravity and nature than the clashes of previous years. This is largely due to the overlap of national security interests - combating the rebel insurgency - and local interests in claiming land and other resources. ... The emergence of the main Darfur rebel movement, the SLA, in February 2003, and its surprising military successes, sharpened fears in the central government, which was then engaged in longstanding political talks in Naivasha, Kenya with the southern rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) in an effort to end the long-running war in the south. The timing of the SLA's emergence in the midst of the Naivasha talks, its surprising military success in the first months, and fears that it did or could forge a coalition with other real or potential insurgencies seeking power-sharing in Sudan, resulted in the Sudanese government's decision to crush the rebellion militarily. It did this by looking beyond the national army, which had always been manned by ill-trained and ill-motivated conscripts and many troops from Darfur. As one observer noted, "President Bashir did not want to rely on his 90,000-strong regular army. It consists to a large extent of Darfuri foot soldiers whom he does not trust. So the Janjaweed was created."

Excerpt from Coalition for Darfur:

Kuperman claims, and many others have argued as well, that much of the blame for the situation in Darfur falls on the rebels who, by rebelling, set off the counter-insurgency/genocide that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

As Kuperman says in his op-ed,
"Darfur was never the simplistic morality tale purveyed by the news media and humanitarian organizations. The region's blacks, painted as long-suffering victims, actually were the oppressors less than two decades ago - denying Arab nomads access to grazing areas essential to their survival. Violence was initiated not by Arab militias but by the black rebels who in 2003 attacked police and military installations."

I have seen this idea repeated in several places and so I just wanted to try and set the record straight. Read more: Darfur, Who Started It?

Peace in southern Sudan is far from sustained - Jan Pronk

UN SGSR Jan Pronk in his blog entry June 11, 2006 describes how the peace process in South Sudan is slowing down and, on top of many unresolved issues,

There are conflicts between nomads and settlers, between cattle raiders and herders, between shepherds and farmers, between returnees and the local population. Disgruntled soldiers, for long not having been paid, start looting. Crime is on the rise. Some Other Armed Groups, not having been part of the SPLA, but loosely associated with the former rival liberation movement SSDF, refuse to follow their leader Paulino Matiep, who has decided to join the SPLA. Instead they continue fighting. In Jonglei a civilian militia, the White Army, refuses to lay down arms. People living around the oil fields are being harassed or even evicted from their land. In many Southern states tribal conflicts explode into violent clashes. In the deep South the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is attacking villages.

Mr Pronk concludes by saying:

Chances are that we will get a second peace keeping task in Darfur. Presently we are preparing ourselves for this challenge. It could very well be more difficult than the task in the South. In Darfur there at least as many other armed groups as in the South and the Darfur Peace Agreement is more disputed than the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between North and South. But whoever might think that we could build a peace keeping force in Darfur by cannibalizing the forces in the South and redeploying some of these towards another part of Sudan would be mistaken. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is no solution. In the South we need all the forces we have, because peace is yet far from sustained.

SA President in Sudan June 20 to push for UN Peace Force

South African President Thabo Mbeki will visit Sudan on June 20, hoping to press Khartoum to approve a UN takeover of an AU peacekeeping operation there, a senior government official said on June 13. Reuters SA reported:

Mbeki's one-day visit would include talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and First Vice-President Salva Kiir, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said.

"This will be a good opportunity for the president ... to discuss progress made," Pahad told reporters. He said Mbeki's visit would seek ways to strengthen implementation of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

However, he said Mbeki would also press Khartoum to agree to an AU proposal to allow the UN to take over in Darfur. "You cannot manage without it (a UN presence)," Pahad said. "The situation is grave."

Pahad said South Africa hoped most of the peacekeepers would still come from African countries, which could allay what analysts say are Sudanese fears that a UN force would seek to arrest officials and government-allied militia leaders likely to be indicted by the International Criminal Court investigating alleged war crimes.

He said Pretoria, which itself has 437 troops in the AU force in Darfur, believed that only the UN would have the resources needed to mount an effective peacekeeping operation.

A senior UN official, in Sudan on a week-long mission seeking to plan for a possible transition, said on Monday that UN troops would not be able to deploy in Darfur before January 2007, making it likely that the AU force would remain in the country beyond its Sept 30 mandate.

Darfuris hostile towards AU peacekeepers - 20 armed factions create hell around ZamZam, Darfur

It's no wonder the gangsters and uneducated masses in Sudan are ruled with a stick. Even peacekeepers costing the international community $1 billion a year are treated with contempt by Darfuris. What a waste. Imagine all the water pumps and school books that could be purchased with such sums of money.

AP report by Alfred de Montesquiou June 12, 2006 - excerpts:

"With all the splinter rebel groups, the Janjaweed controlled by the Sudanese army and those who act own their own, there are maybe 20 armed factions in this zone," said Lt. Col. Mohammed Sallam, an Egyptian officer who commands AU military operations in the Zamzam area. "When you get in an ambush, you know you are being shot at, but you never know by who." [edit]

In Zamzam, officers say they never leave their small police office without a military escort. "We're scared. The situation is completely unpredictable here," said Lekbaraki Salem, a Mauritanian police officer. He said he suspected there were many weapons in the camp, and that combatants from the Sudan Liberation Movement -- the region's main rebel group -- crossed the lines at night to visit their families. [edit]

Still, communication is a problem. The peacekeepers said many refugees who support Elnur's faction blame the AU for the treaty, which they consider unfair. While several translators at the nearby El Fasher headquarters complained they were underworked, the AU military patrol Friday did not include a single Fur or Arabic speaker.

"We have to explain it (the treaty) better to them," said Maj. James Mulenga, a Zambian officer with the AU. A group of Zaghawa and Fur sheiks said they would be eager to return to their villages if security improves, and hoped to be compensated for their loss. But they didn't want to discuss the peace agreement, and AU peacekeepers insisted on leaving before the gathering grew hostile.

In Zamzam, Hawatilin Hamid said finding wood for cooking was one of her hardest chores. AU soldiers once accompanied women gathering wood, but such patrols were stopped because of the growing hostility among many refugees toward the African force.

[Why are the translators underworked? You'd think they'd distribute radios and work flat out to broadcast the real deal so that all the women and children in Darfur and Chad get a chance to hear the full story, not just what the rebel leaders and their henchmen choose to impart to the uneducated masses]

Darfur's SLA rebel faction opens fire on AU troops and foreign journalists in Fakyale, Darfur - Gunmen attack UNHCR office in W Darfur, wound guard

Four armed men attacked a UN field office in Darfur, shooting one guard in the leg, UNHCR said Tuesday, AP/ST reported June 13, 2006:

The men, who were wearing military uniforms, attacked the office in Habila in the far west of Darfur late Monday, said a spokeswoman for the UNHCR. Habila is about 95 km south of the West Darfur capital of al-Geneina. UNHCR has seven staff in Habila, and around 75 in West Darfur.

The attackers forced their way in, shot the guard, stole communications equipment, asked one of the staff for money and then left, Pagonis said. She had few other details.

Photo: AU soldiers and foreign journalists run for cover from a SLA faction that opened fire on them during an AU patrol near the SLA controled Fakyale village in central Darfur, south of the town of Al-Fasher, June 10, 2006. The AU patrol was prevented from entering the village and was forced to change course, with no casualties. (AP)

Darfur's JEM rebels threaten to topple eastern Sudan peace talks - SPLA hands over Hamesh Koreb to Kassala State

June 13, 2006 Reuters report confirms eastern Sudan peace talks to begin in Asmara after delay: "The United Nations will be participating in the talks tonight," UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said on Tuesday. UN observation of the talks is a key rebel demand.

Darfur's JEM rebel group threatened on Tuesday to scuttle peace efforts in Sudan's east if excluded from planned negotiations, Sudan Tribune reported June 13, 2006:

"We do not accept the decision to exclude us from the talks between the Eastern Front and Khartoum," Khalil Ibrahim, leader of Justice Equality Movement (JEM) said in Asmara. "Khartoum will not get peace if we don't participate in the talks," Ibrahim said, warning that JEM's presence in the east could not be ignored.

The Sudanese government and the Eastern Front fighters - grouping rebels from the region's largest ethnic group, the Beja, along with Rashaida Arabs - are set to open talks later Tuesday in a bid to end a simmering civil conflict in eastern Sudan.

Ibrahim said he had told Eastern Front rebels that they stood to benefit from JEM's group's participation in the peace negotiation.

"If we join the Front in the talks they will get more," he said. "They need experience and political awareness - on the other side, there is a well-trained group from the government."

The JEM, which is active in the conflict-ravaged western region of Darfur, has also emerged as a key player in eastern Sudan. It demands a seat at the presidency as part of any peace settlement, but has not been invited to the Asmara talks.

The Eastern Front, formed last year, controls an area on the Sudanese-Eritrean border around the town of Hamesh Koreb and has been involved in low-intensity guerrilla activity against the Khartoum government for years.

- - -

SPLA HANDS OVER HAMESH KOREB TO KASSALA STATE

Kassala State's Government has received Hamesh Koreb area from Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) Sunday in the framework of the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Sudan Tribune reported June 12, 2006:

Hamesh Koreb, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) northeast of Khartoum in Sudan's Kassala province, was the largest town controlled by the SPLM/A in eastern Sudan during the 21-year north-south civil war that ended last January.

The first phase of Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLA) withdrawal from Eastern Sudan to the Southern Sudan commenced on 20 April.

Photo: SPLA troops before their departure to South Sudan from the east. (ST)

RARE INTERVIEW: Sheik Musa Hilal, leader of Um Jalul tribe in his hometown of Mistariha, Darfur (Lydia Polgreen)

Copy of interview "Over Tea, Sheik Denies Stirring Darfur's Torment" by Lydia Polgreen, New York Times (via The Ledger) June 12, 2006:

MISTARIHA, Sudan - Their camouflage uniforms bear no insignia. Their machine guns lack the brassy patina of long use. Instead of boots, most wear sandals or flip-flops. The armed men swarming this mysterious town, usually off limits to foreigners, look almost, but not quite, like soldiers. Their allegiance does not appear to be to any military commander, but to a tall, copper-skinned man in a white robe and turban named Musa Hilal.

Mr Hilal, the sheik who the State Department and human rights organizations say is an architect and perhaps the key leader of the fearsome Arab militias that have unleashed a torrent of misery in Darfur, laughed softly at the question of who these armed men were. "They are soldiers," he replied with an easy smile in a rare interview here. "Just regular soldiers."

But the commander of the African Union peacekeeping base two dozen miles away, Col. John Bosco Mulisa, said there was little doubt who these men really were. "They are janjaweed," he said, using the local term for the Arab militias. "This town is their headquarters."

Whoever their commander is and whatever they are called, these men and the weapons they carry will determine whether, after three years of conflict that has left at least 200,000 dead, the fragile efforts to bring peace to this shattered region will succeed or fail.

"The greatest threat to this peace agreement right now is the janjaweed," said a senior military intelligence officer with the African Union who is not authorized to speak publicly. "It is not clear what is in it for them or how it serves their interests to disarm. No one is sure what they will do or who exactly controls them."

The first and most critical step of that agreement, signed in May between the government in Khartoum and the largest rebel faction, is the disarmament of the janjaweed. The government pledged to submit a plan to disarm the militias of their heavy weaponry one month after signing the agreement and to finish the job before the end of October. But how do you disarm a phantom army whose sponsors and leaders deny its existence? And exactly who are the janjaweed and is it within the government's power to disarm them? "Who are the janjaweed?" asked Eltayeb Hag Ateya, director of the Peace Research Institute at the University of Khartoum. "It depends on what you mean and who you ask."

The term itself has long been used to refer to highwaymen and bandits from tribes living across Sudan's western border in Chad who roamed the vast, semi desert plains of Darfur, robbing Arabs and non-Arabs, nomads and farmers. But the word came to have a new meaning after rebels attacked a government outpost in Darfur in 2003, sparking the conflict that would engulf the region and eventually spill into Chad.

The militias that came to be known as the janjaweed were deployed as a kind of counterinsurgency proxy force that the government used in place of and sometimes alongside its military. It had used such Arab militias with brutal success in the 20-year civil war in the south. These fighters were paid a small stipend, but their greatest reward was the right to loot and seize livestock and land from the Fur and Zaghawa, non-Arab tribes from which the rebels drew their ranks.

The chief figure in the deployment of these militias, according to the State Department and human rights organizations, was Mr Hilal, who leads a powerful Arab tribe in Darfur called Um Jalul.

Long before the war began, Mr Hilal wielded control over a fearsome tribal militia, and because of his deep connections to the Arab elite of Khartoum, he was the first tribal leader the government turned to when the insurgency among non-Arab tribes began, human rights investigators say.

He responded to the call by summoning recruits to enlarge his militia to thousands of men, who were trained and equipped in vast barracks here in Mistariha. Soon, this dusty village nestled between a pair of mountains was a beehive of military activity, with truckloads of recruits and helicopters full of weapons and other supplies arriving daily. Platoons of armed men on camels and horseback arrived constantly, their animals weighed down with loot, according to witness accounts collected by human rights groups. At the center of it all was Mr. Hilal, the witnesses said, directing and rallying his troops and urging them to plunder.

Officially, the town was called the headquarters of the government's Border Intelligence Unit, though it is about 120 miles from the nearest border, with Chad.

In Mistariha, Mr Hilal took pains to explain that he was not a militia leader, merely an influential sheik. In a two-hour interview over a lunch of grilled meats and tea near a bustling market, Mr Hilal said repeatedly that the Arab militias he was accused of commanding simply did not exist.

"It is a lie," he said. "Janjaweed is a thief. A criminal. I am a tribal leader, with men and women and children who follow me. How can they all be thieves and bandits? It is not possible."

He said there were no tensions here between Arabs and non-Arabs. By way of demonstration, he ordered one of his soldiers to round up a group of market women. When the women arrived, cowering under their bright robes as Mr Hilal hovered over them, one by one said there were no tensions here.

"I am a Fur," said Fatouma, a woman who sells millet in the market, naming the largest non-Arab tribe in the region. Her eyes avoided Mr Hilal's imperious glare. "We get along with the Arabs fine," she added, before begging to be allowed to return to her market stall.

"See!" Mr. Hilal exclaimed to his foreign visitors. "We have no problems here. We live together in peace."

But in much of his territory the only peace is the peace of a graveyard. The road leading here from the nearby town of Kebkabiyah tells another story new Arab villages line the road, while old Fur and Zaghawa villages are burned-out husks.

In one Zaghawa village, bullet holes scar a crumbling schoolhouse. All the thatch roofs have been burned away, and rain and desert winds have worn the walls of the decapitated huts down to mere suggestions of habitation. In time, even those will disappear, leaving no trace of the Zaghawa.

Mr Hilal's claim that he has no control over any militia does not bear scrutiny, said Alex de Waal, an Africa scholar who studies Sudan. "He is at the center of all of this," Mr de Waal said.

In letters to government officials and other tribal leaders, Mr Hilal has repeatedly said his fighters are engaged in a jihad, or holy war, and will not disarm even if the government demands it.

"We will not retreat," he wrote in one such letter in 2004 to the leaders in Khartoum. "We continue on the road of jihad." Trying to disarm his men, he wrote, would be "cowardly," and impossible to enforce.

Another communique from Mr Hilal's headquarters in 2004, obtained by Mr de Waal, demanded that the militias "change the demography of Darfur and empty it of African tribes."

The janjaweed so far have not respected the new peace agreement, attacking rebel-held towns in the area of Kutum in northern Darfur and Shearia in South Darfur, killing dozens of people.

Indeed, the Arab militias did not sign the peace agreement. They were represented, after a fashion, by the government, which has steadily denied their existence. Even so, one of the assumptions of the agreement was that the government had control over the Arab militias and the power to disarm them. This is based on a deeper assumption that the interests of Darfur's Arabs would be tended to by Khartoum. Neither is turning out to be true.

"If you ask me where my allegiance lies, with the government or with Darfur, I will have to tell you Darfur," Mr. Hilal said.

This is not the first time the government has promised to disarm the Arab militias. It pledged during seven separate rounds of peace talks over the past three years to neutralize them but has failed to do so. These failures have met with no sanction, so there is little confidence the government will take action now.

"Frankly it is the weakest link in an otherwise deeply flawed agreement," said John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group, an organization that studies violent conflicts. "It leaves intact the same promise the international community has relied upon, and that is that the government is principally responsible for reining in and otherwise neutralizing the murderous militias. It hasn't happened before and there is no new reason why it would happen now."

For some time, the government has been simply integrating the janjaweed militias into its official paramilitary Popular Defense Forces and the regular army, Mr Prendergast said. That process is likely to speed up in the coming months as negotiations continue over whether Sudan will allow a United Nations peacekeeping force to take over the understaffed and underfinanced African Union mission here.

If the alliance of convenience between the Arab militias and the government crumbles, there is little incentive for the militias to play along. Under the peace agreement, they are likely to lose control of land they stole, and there are deep fears that Arabs will be subjugated by the small but influential Zaghawa tribe, which leads the most powerful faction of the rebels.

"There is going to be a lot of conflict between the government and some of the Arab leaders," Mr Prendergast said. "But the government built the Frankenstein monster and now they have got to deal with it."



Photo: Sheikh Musa Hilal, a Sudanese chief who heads Darfur's largest Arab tribe, is seen inside a small shop in Mistariha, Sudan, May 23, 2006. (Reuters/STR/Sudan Watch archive)

Sudan and Chad now openly support rebel activities on their respective terrorities UNHCR tells UN Security Council delegation in Chad

Reuters report by Evelyn Leopold, CAMP GOUROUKOUN June 11, 2006:

French military aircraft flew the 15-nation Security Council delegation in Chad from N'Djamena, the capital, to Abeche in the east and then to Goz Beida, about 100 km (62 miles) from the Sudan border.

Half the delegation visited a camp for 10,000 Chadians who fled attacks in their villages.

The rest went to the Djabal Refugee camp of 14,000 Sudanese refugees, who lined the road with signs protesting the May 5 Darfur peace accord between the government and two rebel groups.

"We have been attacked by the Janjaweed. We have become widows. Our girls have been raped and our men killed. Our properties were destroyed," said Hanne Adam Ali, in a presentation to the UN group and about 1,000 displaced people.

Security is dreadful for many Sudanese camp dwellers and relief workers, said Ana Liria-France, the UNHCR representative in Chad. The rebel Sudan Liberation Army has forcibly recruited young men and boys. Even teachers in the camp are recruiting.

Deby wants an international peacekeeping force, which the Security Council plans to send to Darfur. But the council has not figured out how to deal with Chad's own crisis.

"The main requirement here is there should be better policing in the camps," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Jones Parry said after the council members spent two hours with Deby in N'Djamena. "It's a policing effort rather more than the sort of mission that is necessary in Darfur."

France has some 1,000 military personnel in its former colony, nearly all in the air force but its UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said they would not be policing the camps, although "we will do our share" if there was an international response.

To add to the misery, Sudan now has aligned itself with warlords in Chad as part of its counter-insurgency strategy in Darfur.

"Both countries now openly support rebel activities on their respective territories," UNHCR said in briefing notes for council members.

Photo: A tribal representative speaks to members of the UN Security Council at the Gouroukoun camp for Internally Displaced Persons, in Goz Beida, Chad, June 10, 2006, for people who have fled their homes in eastern Chad after fighting has spilled across the border from Sudan. The UN Security Council is touring on a fact finding mission about the situation in Darfur. REUTERS/Chip East (CHAD)

Sudan and Darfur: The problem is political (Fathi M. El Fadl)

Fathi M. El Fadl, a member of the Sudanese Communist Party's international affairs committee, has an opinion piece at Political Affairs Magazine today that takes issue with many western media reports. El Fadl says the crisis in Sudan is not one of race or ethnicity (Arab vs. African), but a political and economic one that requires political and economic solutions, and, quote:

Sudan's colonial legacy cannot be blamed for today's problems. It is 50 years since the British left the Sudan. The problem is that Sudan is 10 times worse than when the British left. Those who took power either through democratic election or military means failed the people of the Sudan miserably. [Edit]

For those in other countries wishing to express solidarity with the Sudanese people, the most important action is to explain the political ramifications of the crisis of Darfur, both domestic and international, and the real way out, as described here.

What Sudan really fears is UN troops may be used to arrest officials and militia likely to be indicted by the ICC investigating war crimes in Darfur

Senior UN and AU officials opened unprecedented talks in Khartoum today, to convince the government to accept UN peacekeeping troops in Darfur, Reuters reported - excerpt:

"The United Nations never imposes itself on any country," UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno told reporters after the joint team met Foreign Minister Lam Akol.

"All our peacekeeping operations in Africa are deployed with the cooperation of the host country."

Guehenno's heading of the joint U.N.-AU technical mission was unprecedented, UN officials said. His counterpart in the African Union, Said Djinnit, headed his delegation.

Sudan rejects UN transition in Darfur, painting the picture of a Western invasion that would attract jihadi militants. Al Qaeda Islamist Ayman al-Zawahri on Friday criticised a "spineless" Khartoum for even allowing the assessment mission to enter Sudan.

Akol said military and other technical experts from the team would be leaving for Darfur on Tuesday. Asked if the Sudanese government's position had changed, he said: "Any decisions of any sort will be taken after that," referring to the team's trip to Darfur.

The joint mission will return to Khartoum for further talks after visiting Darfur. The mission, which arrived on Friday, is expected to last around 18 days.

Akol said the joint team could not tell Khartoum what the mandate and aim of a possible U.N. mission in Darfur would be until after they had visited the region and assessed what was required.

But the United Nations would have to move fast. The AU has a mandate only until September 30 and is struggling to find funds to sustain the mission until then.

Asked if the AU mandate could be extended, Djinnit said it was too early to say. "It depends ... how soon the United Nations will be ready to take over ... once all the conditions are met for that mission to take over the African mission in Sudan (AMIS)," he said.

The mission's more pressing role is to assess what extra the AU needs ahead of transition to help implement a May 5 Darfur peace deal. It will likely send at least 3,000 more troops.

"It has to do with what needs to be done as a matter of urgency for AMIS to be able to perform its responsibilities," Djinnit said of the team's visit.

"It has huge responsibilities to maintain peace and to help in the implementation of the Darfur peace agreement," he said.

Important note: The report points out that analysts say what Sudan really fears is UN troops may be used to arrest officials or militia leaders likely to be indicted by the International Criminal Court investigating war crimes in Darfur. This is what I believe all the fear is really based on. Can you blame them? Me neither. Somehow, I believe the politicians will find a way of dropping the ICC stick by using it as a trade off for agreeing peace, disarmament and reconciliation using local traditions and customs.

Al-Qaeda criticised Khartoum as "spineless" for allowing UN-AU assessment mission into Sudan

A report by Reuters Opheera McDoom today, points out that Al-Qaeda criticised Khartoum as "spineless" for allowing UN-AU assessment mission into Sudan. And the Malaysia Sun tells us al-Qaeda's deputy discussed Egypt, where he is from, and Darfur:

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaida's deputy, made a brief appearance on al-Jazeera TV Friday mentioning Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi but not his death.

The BBC said al-Zawahiri's main topic was the referendum on statehood by Palestinians, which he said should be rejected by Muslims.

He also discussed the political situation in Egypt, where he's from and the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan.

He praised al-Zarqawi but making no mention of his death indicated the tape was made before the U.S. air strike Wednesday that killed the Iraqi insurgent leader.

Darfur: "If a UN force is sent here, I will call for jihad," warned Muwad Jalalabin, chief of the Barty tribe

At long last, we are hearing news of the tribal leaders in Sudan. A BBC report today reveals UN ambassadors in Sudan have met with strong opposition from tribal leaders to the deployment of troops in Darfur, including threats of holy war. Excerpt:

Khartoum has made clear that it would prefer the AU peacekeepers to be given more support rather than allow a UN force into the region.

UN officials have stressed they want to work alongside the Sudanese government and not take over peacekeeping efforts.

Tribal chiefs in Darfur have also expressed resistance to the idea.

"If a UN force is sent here, I will call for jihad," warned Muwad Jalalabin, chief of the Barty tribe.

Any deployment of non-African forces in the region would be considered as "foreign occupation", he told the reporters in el-Fasher, the main town in north Darfur.

Osman Kebir, governor of northern Darfur, also voiced opposition to the UN proposal, telling the Reuters news agency that the region needed humanitarian assistance but "not troops".

Their comments came as members of Security Council delegation toured Darfur and met with tribal leaders, relief workers and government officials over the proposal.

My hopes are that the African Union Mission in Darfur receives all the support it needs from the UN and NATO, with permission from Khartoum. Tribal leaders run the Janjaweed. Only they can sort it out. It's time they stepped up to the plate. My guess is Khartoum can't manage it otherwise they would have done it by now because of all the billions of dollars staked on peace. The world is watching. We need to hear more from the tribal leaders, their point of view and what it is they can do to help the millions of defenceless women and children in Sudan and Chad - and resolve the battles over drinking water, land and livestock.

UN Security Council, in Darfur, finds opposition

Tribal leaders on Friday rejected the possibility of UN peacekeepers replacing African Union (AU) forces in Darfur, with one chief threatening a "holy war" if non-African troops come to the Sudanese region, AFP (Edith Lederer) reported June 9 - excerpt:

Mowadh Jalaladin, a representative of the Barty tribe which he said has about 250,000 members, said handing over to a UN force "would inaugurate foreign occupation and intervention" and remind Sudanese of their colonial past, echoing earlier government rhetoric that has fanned anti-UN sentiment.

The cry also has been taken up by Islamic militants.

The Al-Jazeera satellite channel on Friday broadcast a videotape by the deputy leader of al-Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahri, in which he said the UN Security Council visit to Sudan was "to prepare to occupy and divide it." In a tape aired on Arab television in April, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden urged followers to fight any U.N. peacekeeping force in Sudan.

If a UN force comes to Darfur, Jalaladin said, "we are declaring jihad against it.

"It means death. It means defending Sudan and Islam," Jalaladin said.

"The root causes of the Darfur conflict are the doing of the Jewish organizations who financed this armed rebellion," he claimed. "We don't want the Security Council to be an instrument of the ugly undertakings of the United States of America."

Another tribal chief, Barwd Dusa, took a much more moderate stance but still favored keeping African troops in this vast western region about the size of France.

"We would like for the United Nations to help the African Union in supporting the troops of the African Union in order to enforce the peace agreement on the ground," said Dusa, who claims his Zagawa tribe also has about 250,000 people.

With the May 5 agreement "our lives changed, we changed, our mind-set changed and we are feeling more reassured and we celebrated ... ," he said. "The overwhelming majority of the population of Darfur in general wants peace."

He urged the two rebel groups refusing to sign the agreement to drop their opposition "because we cannot take any more war and any more instability."

Ibrahim Abdurazig, leader of North Darfur's National Youth Association, also called for the rebel holdouts to sign the agreement and for an "African solution."

The African Union force "respects the customs and moral values" of the Darfur people, "and they don't want any foreigners to meddle," he said.

The 15 council ambassadors were greeted at the airport by over 100 government officials and tribal leaders dressed in traditional white robes and turbans and colorfully dressed women shouting "Alahu Akbar," or "God is Great."

Osman Yusouf Kibir, the governor of North Darfur, told reporters that the Darfur leaders had agreed with the council on many issues and welcomed its support.

Asked about Jalaladin's threat of "jihad," or holy war, he said the possibility of a UN force was being discussed and "we fully respect what transpires out of the interaction between the government and the international community."

Britain's UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who is leading the delegation, said the council is trying to make sure the peace agreement is implemented and that conditions in Darfur improve.

"What is vital is that there should be a rapid improvement in the security situation here, especially for the women, and that the humanitarian access must be better assured," he said.

See June 9 2006 DPA report: UN peacekeepers not wanted: Darfuri leaders

Joint UN-AU team of 40 arrive in Khartoum today to begin planning for strengthening AU Mission in Darfur

A United Nations mission arrived in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, today to begin planning for the deployment of UN peacekeepers to end three years of fighting in the western region of Darfur, Bloomberg reported June 9 - excerpt:

The team of 40 people from the UN and the African Union is being led by Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno and will visit Darfur and hold talks with senior government officials over a period of 18 days, said Jim Landale, a spokesman for the UN mission.

"The goal of the mission is to look at what can be done to strengthen the African Union force mission now and plan for a possible takeover by a United Nations peacekeeping mission," Landale said today in an interview in Khartoum.

The peace deal gives the rebels the right to appoint a senior assistant to the president, formally the fourth-highest position in government, and one state governor in Darfur and two deputy governors. They also have 12 seats in the National Assembly. Regional elections are to be held within three years.

The government committed itself to disarm militias known as the Janjaweed by mid-October, to integrate former rebel fighters into the armed forces, and to contribute $700 million to a regional development fund in the next three years.

UN Security Council mission visits S Sudan for talks on CPA, Darfur rebels and LRA

On June 8, 2006 UN Security Council members met with southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir, First Vice-President Riek Machar and other senior officials for discussions that focused on the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudanese government and the rebels of western Sudan's Darfur region.

They also discussed the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army. Full report UN News Centre June 8, 2006.

AU says four Darfur faction leaders back peace agreement

The leaders were named as Abdel Rahman Musa Abbaker (chief negotiator for the SLM/A Abdul Wahid), Ibrahim Madibo (chief negotiator for the SLM/A Abdul Wahid for power-sharing), Ustaz Abdel Raheem Adam Abdel Raheem Abu Risha (general secretary for JEM, Southern Darfur) and Commander Adam Saleh Abbaker (representative of the military commanders of SLM/A Abdul Wahid).

Full report DPA via ReliefWeb June 9, 2006 [hat tip Coalition for Darfur]

Jun 9 2006 VOA President of new rebel faction "JEM Aburisha" is Abdurahman Adam Abdurahman Aburish

Jun 9 2006 AFP Abdurahman Musa Abbakar leads splinter wing of Nur's SLM

Staunch American liberal interventionist rethinks Darfur after reading David Rieff"s "Moral Blindness: The Case Against Troops for Darfur"

Excerpt from blog entry at Voices on Genocide Prevention June 7, 2006:

Anne-Marie Slaughter has a rather unsettling blog entry at TPM Cafe. She's the Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and widely regarded as a brilliant thinker on international relations. But in this entry she states that although she previously has supported NATO intervention in Darfur, David Rieff's recent piece in the New Republic gave her pause. He pointed out some of the complexities involved in Western intervention, leading her to conclude that "we need to rethink where and how we apply that pressure" on the Government of Sudan.

Excerpt from blog entry Rethinking Darfur by Anne-Marie Slaughter:

I have been a staunch liberal interventionist on issues like Darfur. Lee, Ivo and I all participated (with Tod Lindberg) on the working group of the 2005 UN-US Task Force charged with looking at policy toward Darfur and all strongly recommended a UN Resolution authorizing NATO support of AU efforts and failing that, direct NATO intervention. I have also been a strong supporter of Nick Kristoff's repeated calls for action.

But two items in the last week have given me pause. First is from David Rieff, whom John and I have debated before on this site. David has a strong and thought-provoking piece in the The New Republic entitled "Moral Blindness."

- - -

May 28 2006 Moral Blindness: The Case Against Troops for Darfur (by David Rieff) - and "How to avoid another Iraqi quagmire in Sudan."

May 31 2006 Sudan Watch Nasty Eric 'insurgent loving' Reeves uses his poison pen to hurl insults at David Rieff (and everyone else except the rebels)

UN peacekeepers not wanted: Darfuri leaders

Local leaders from northern Darfur have threatened that UN peacekeepers may face violence if they enter the region as part of a peacekeeping force, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported June 9, 2006. Excerpt:

Their remarks followed a meeting between the governor of north Darfur and a 15-member delegation from the UN Security Council, which arrived in the Darfur on Friday, following a visit to the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

"The people here are Muslims and they don't want international intervention here because it complicates the local traditions," local council member Ali Tango told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"The people don't want foreigners to come in here," Tango told dpa. "Look at how Afghanistan and Iraq deteriorated."

In reality, a UN mission would likely be a re-hatting of the African Union (AU) force presently on the ground.

"The Security Council will do everything possible to insure that a UN mission with the consent of the government of Sudan comes to Darfur as soon as possible," head of the delegation Emyr Parry-Jones told reporters following his meeting with Governor Yousef Osman Kibir.

Delegates also met with representatives of some 2 million displaced Darfuris who are currently languishing in refugee camps. They did not however, visit the camps in this area themselves.

Darfur SLM-Nur urges UN to protect Darfur refugees

Sudan Tribune report June 9, 2006 - excerpt:

The Rebel Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdelwahid al-Nur welcomed the Security Council visit to the refugee camps in Sudanese Darfur and Chad, the SLM urged the United Nations to protect the affected Darfur civilians.

In a press release issued Thursday the SLM-al-Nur renewed its rejection for the African Union brokered peace deal signed on 5 May between the Sudanese government and the SLM-Minawi faction. The rebel group repeated appeals for UN mediation to settle Darfur conflict.

The SLM also raises for the first time the question the, Tribal Lands Ownership, and call for its reinstallation.

Below the text of the SLM/A Press Satement

See Full report. Note, Press Statement signed by Jaffer Monro, Spokesperson and Press Secretary, SLM/A. For more info regarding above Press Release, please contact: Nouri Abdalla, SLM/A, GSM: +254-72-752-2952 Email: nouriabdalla@yahoo.com

Darfur JEM rebels emerge as key to east Sudan peace

Sudan Tribune report June 8, 2006 excerpt:

Rebel group from arid eastern Sudan is due finally to start peace talks with Khartoum next week but the exclusion of Darfur-based Islamic rebels may bring yet more misery to the long-neglected region.

The Eastern Front, comprising rebels from the region’s largest ethnic group - the Beja - and Rashidiya Arabs, are taking part in the negotiations in the Eritrean capital on Tuesday 13 June.

But the meeting's outcome may be decided by the increasingly effective Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a moderate Islamist rebel group hitherto mainly active in the western region of Darfur, where it rejected a peace deal signed by the larger Sudan Liberation Movement last month.

The Eastern Front controls a slice of territory on the Sudanese-Eritrean border around the town of Hamesh Koreb and has been involved in low-intensity guerrilla activity against the Khartoum government for years.

While the Eastern Front has similar aims to its counterparts in Darfur - autonomy and greater control over their region's resources - their newfound allies in the JEM demand a seat on the presidency, key to eventual national power.

The latest attack, on a government convoy on May 2, is believed to have been carried out by the JEM alone.

Suliman Baldo of Brussels-based think-tank, the International Crisis Group, said that such attacks showed the JEM could thwart the peace process in the east if its demands were not satisfied.

"The attack on May 2 shows the potential for spoiler action in eastern Sudan, that there could be an even greater conflict because the government is not going to invite the JEM to negotiations in Asmara," he said.

"They may be inclined to do more operations like this."

A Western security contractor familiar with the situation said the JEM fighters in the area were also showing unprecedented expertise. Full report.

Beja Congress calls for UN participation in Eastern Sudan talks

East Sudan rebels Press Release signed by Abu Amna, Beja Congress, Eastern Sudan, email address: drabuamna@maktoob.com

Abdurahman Musa Abbakar leads splinter wing of Nur's SLM

AFP report Dissident Darfur Rebels Sign AU Peace Deal- via Defense News June 8, 2006 - excerpt:

"With this declaration we are committing ourselves to the agreement in the same way as the other signatories, and are hoping that it allows peace in Darfur," said a leader of the SLM/A faction, Abdurahman Musa Abbakar.

A leader of the dissident JEM faction said the final decision to sign the pact was a "historic moment" for Sudan.

"I want to invite all people to adopt this peace agreement because this agreement belongs to all Sudanese and their neighbors," said Abdurahman Adam Abdurahman Aburisha.

Note, meanwhile a report today by VOA says holdout rebels loyal to those refusing to sign Darfur Peace Agreement are demanding international intervention and their "rights first and then peace later." See http://voanews.com/english/2006-06-08-voa49.cfm

President of new rebel faction "JEM Aburisha" is Abdurahman Adam Abdurahman Aburish

The French news agency, AFP, reports a member, Abdurahman Adam Abdurahman Aburisha of the JEM splinter group is calling himself president of the new faction, while re-naming it after himself JEM Aburisha. VOA News June 8, 2006.

NATO ready to lend more help to AU in Darfur

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed on Thursday a request by the African Union for more logistical help for its troops in Darfur, saying the alliance would study what it could do.

NATO has been supplying airlift and training to AU troops and made it clear it would extend that support if an AU request was forthcoming.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he received a letter this week from AU chief Alpha Oumar Konare requesting an extension of help and added that he had put Konare's request to a meeting of alliance defence ministers in Brussels.

"We are now moving on with this," he said after the meeting, adding that NATO logistical support could range from advice on operations to help in setting up an operations centre. - Reuters June 8, 2006.



Photo: UK Defence Secretary Desmond Browne, left, looks across the room as he sits next to his U.S. counterpart Donald Rumsfeld during a meeting of NATO defense ministers at the alliance headquarters in Brussels, Thursday June 8, 2006. NATO defence ministers on Thursday will discuss, among other issues, the expansion of NATOs peacekeeping force in Afghanistan and the Alliances operations and missions in Darfur, Iraq and Kosovo. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Factions of JEM and Nur's SLM signed Darfur peace today

AP report via Aljazeera June 8, 2006 - excerpt:

Breakaway factions from two Darfur rebel groups that rejected last month's peace accord signed a declaration of commitment to the deal Thursday.

"We shall be bound by the letter and spirit of the (Darfur Peace Accord) and shall assume and implement the relevant obligations therein, especially those related to the comprehensive cease-fire agreement," the letter said.

"The former holdouts should do their utmost to urge their respective members and fellow Darfurians to join the peace process," the African Union Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said after the signing ceremony in Addis Ababa.

UPATE: Jun 10 2006 Sudan Tribune report Dissident rebels ink commitment to Darfur peace accord - Asmara statement is signed by Abdelwhaid al-Nur of SLM, Khalil Ibrahim of JEM, Ahmed Ibrahim Diraige, the chairman of the Federal Democratic Alliance (FDA) and former Darfur governor, Dr Sharif Harir from FDA and former SLM leading member and Khamis Abdallah Abakar the former SLA vice-president and leader of the Massaleit component of the SLA faction who was among the 19 commanders wanted to freeze Abdel Wahid out earlier on during the 7th round in December 2005.

Thirty representatives, including commanders and politicians from the splinter wings of the SLM/A and JEM, signed the declaration at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. "With this declaration, we are committing ourselves to the agreement in the same way as the other signatories and are hoping that it allows peace in Darfur," said Abdurahman Musa Abbakar of the SLM/A.

Dissident Darfur rebels to sign peace deal tomorrow

AFP report just in via Mail & Guardian - excerpt:

Dissident factions of two Darfur rebel groups that have rejected a peace deal for the troubled western Sudanese region are to sign onto the pact this week, African Union officials said on Wednesday.

Splinter wings of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are to sign a specially prepared annex to the May 5 AU-mediated peace accord here on Thursday, the officials said.

"The dissident JEM and SLM rebels are going to sign a declaration on Thursday saying that they support the Darfur Peace Agreement," said Assane Ba, a spokesperson for the Addis Ababa-based pan-African body.

"The declaration will then be annexed to the original accord and will bring these rebels into line with the other signatories," he said.

Representatives of the two groups have been in the Ethiopian capital since last week when a May 31 deadline for hold-outs to the agreement to sign or face possible sanctions passed with no new signers.

They said on Friday they were ready to accept the deal but were waiting until the AU came up with a mechanism for them to join the peace deal.

The AU Peace and Security Council is due to meet on Thursday to approve the annex to the agreement, which is hoped will put further pressure on the remaining hold-outs to sign, diplomats said.

"For the AU, this serves to marginalise those who have not yet signed and keep up pressure for them to join the process," one African diplomat told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity.

Only one Darfur rebel group, the main wing of the SLA, has thus far signed the peace deal with Khartoum and AU officials have become increasingly frustrated with the refusal of the JEM and an SLA faction led by Abdel Wahid Mohammed al-Nur to accept it.

AU commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare told reporters on Thursday that discussions with al-Nur's faction were ongoing.

"We maintain contacts," he said. "We received a message from Abdel Wahid saying he is ready to come, but he has some conditions. Now we have to examine those conditions."

Darfur peace force to be boosted with 3,000 troops

An extra 3,000 peacekeepers are to be sent to Darfur in a bid to contain the raging violence, the African Union has told the BBC. Full report.

UN Security Council delegation meets at AU HQ - UN peacekeeping chief at AU HQ to set up joint UN-AU preparatory mission

Photo: British Ambassador to the UN Sir Emyr Jones Parry boards the aircraft as the United Nations Security Council prepares to depart from Khartoum, Sudan to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as they tour the region on a fact-finding mission about the situation in Darfur, June 7, 2006. (Reuters/Chip East)



Photo: French Ambassador to the UN Jean-Marc de La Sabliere (L) and British Ambassador to the UN Emyr Jones Parry speak as the UN Security Council flies from Khartoum, Sudan to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia June 7, 2006. (Reuters/Chip)

AFP report June 7, 2006 via Africast.com - excerpt:

A United Nations Security Council team met on Wednesday with African Union officials at AU HQ in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to discuss the possible handover to the UN of an AU peacekeeping force in Darfur.

Diplomats said the 15-member delegation would meet AU Commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare, members of the pan-African body's Peace and Security Council and officials from countries that have contributed troops to the Darfur mission.

"It is a formal meeting with the AU to congratulate it on efforts to stabilise Darfur and reiterate that the AU continues to play a central role, even if it transfers the force to the UN," one diplomat told Agence France-Press.

Khartoum said only that it would give the proposed handover "step-by-step" consideration, despite repeated AU requests for a rapid transition given its inability to sustain the 7 000-strong Amis force in Darfur.

In Khartoum, the leader of the Security Council delegation, Britain's UN ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry, repeated assurances that the move would not be made without the approval of the Sudanese government.

Still, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno was expected in Addis Ababa later on Wednesday to help set up a joint UN-AU preparatory mission that would evaluate requirements for the switch if Sudan eventually agrees.

The team is currently on a nine-day tour of African hotspots and after Ethiopia will go to Darfur, Chad and then the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Photo: A guard from Rwanda stands on the roof of the UN Mission to Sudan (UNMIS) in Khartoum June 6, 2006, as the United Nations Security Council meets inside during their fact finding mission regarding the situation in Darfur. (Reuters/Chip)




Photo: Heavily armed Sudanese policemen arrive in a four-wheel drive truck outside he Friendship Hall in Khartoum, where the UN Security Council meets with Sudanese ministers, in Khartoum, Tuesday, June 6, 2006. The Sudanese government told the UN Security Council Tuesday that it would not give immediate approval for UN peacekeepers for Darfur, but was willing to talk about a step seen as key to a solution in the restive western region. (AP Photo/Abd Raouf)



Photo: (From L-R) Ghanian Ambassador to the UN Nana Effah-Aprenteng, British Ambassador to the UN Emyr Jones Parry, Chinese Ambassador to the UN Wang Guangya, Peruvian Ambassador to the UN Oswaldo De Rivero and Argentine Ambassador to the UN Cesar Mayoral lead members of the UN Security Council from a meeting with Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Lam Akol Ajawin (not pictured) in Khartoum June 6, 2006. (Reuters/Chip East)



Photo: British Ambassador to the UN Emyr Jones Parry (L) and Ghanian Ambassador to the UN Nana Effah-Aprenteng, along with other members of the UN Security Council, leave the UN Mission to Sudan (UNMIS) headquarters after a meeting in Khartoum June 6, 2006. (Reuters/Chip)



Photo: Chinese Ambassador to the UN Wang Guangya (L) and other members of the UN Security Council leave the UN Mission to Sudan (UNMIS) headquarters after a meeting in Khartoum June 6, 2006. (Reuters/Chip)



Photo: Members of the United Nations Security Council, including (R-L) Peruvian Ambassador to the UN Oswaldo De Rivero, French Ambassador to the UN Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, British Ambassador to the UN Emyr Jones Parry and American representative Jackie Wolcott Sanders, arrive from Khartoum, Sudan, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to meet with the African Union, June 7, 2006. (Reuters/Chip)



Photo: Former Ethiopian Ambassador to the UN Teruneh Zenna (L) greets members of the UN Security Council, including Tanzanian Ambassador to the UN Augustine Mahiga (2nd L-R), Greek Ambassador to the UN Adamantios Vassilakis and Chinese Ambassador to the UN Wang Guangya as they arrive from Khartoum, Sudan to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to meet with the African Union, June 7, 2006. (Reuters/Chip)



Photo: Chairman of the African Union Alpha Oumar Konare, former President of Mali, speaks to the United Nations Security Council in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia June 7, 2006. (Chip East/Reuters)

AU expects 10,000 peacekeepers in Darfur - Head of UN peacekeeping travels to Sudan - AU to meet rebels objecting to their leader's rejection of peace

Reuters report June 7, 2006 excerpt:

"Before the UN actually takes over the African Mission in Sudan needs to be reinforced and we will be working together to make sure AMIS is reinforced," Britain's UN ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, said after a meeting with Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the AU commission.

Konare, according to a council member at the meeting, expected more troops from Ghana, Rwanda and Nigeria to make a total of 10,000 soldiers and observers in Darfur. He also wants back-up support, such as transport and communications, from NATO countries.

However, Konare stressed he did not want Western soldiers on the ground, which Sudanese officials regard as invaders, one envoy reported, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Jones Parry said the AU reinforcements were needed for a tougher mandate to protect civilians, agreed in the peace pact negotiated by the AU in Abuja, Nigeria.

'INDEED CONFIDENT'

Konare told reporters he would like UN peacekeepers in Darfur as soon as possible but only after permission from the Sudanese government.

He said was "indeed confident" that this would happen, adding that the African Union and the United Nations were in full agreement on how to proceed.

Sudan has agreed to a military planning team comprising UN and AU officials.

Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno, head of UN peacekeeping, begins his mission at AU headquarters on Wednesday before heading to Sudan.

The AU is expected to hold a high-level meeting in Gabon later this month to discuss Darfur and on Thursday is expected to meet members of rebel groups who object to their leaders' rejection of the peace pact.

UPDATE: Jun 7 2006 AP report via Sudan Tribune - African Union agrees UN takeover of Darfur peacekeeping: Djinnat said several battalions are likely to be added to the AU force. "I can tell you that it could be raised to the level of 10,000," he told The Associated Press.

A member of the Security Council delegation echoed the 10,000 figure and said the additional troops would likely come from Rwanda, Nigeria and Ghana, and that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would likely provide helicopters and other logistical support. The AU police force in Darfur will also likely be doubled from about 1,000 to 2,000, the council delegate said.

Joint UN-AU assessment team due in Khartoum Friday

AngolaPress report (Khartoum) June 7, 2006:

A joint assessment team of the United Nations and the African Union (UN) is to arrive in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Friday to hold consultations with the Sudanese government on the UN's role in Sudan's troubled western Darfur region, a Sudanese official announced on Tuesday.

Jamal Mohammed Ibrahim, spokesman of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, made the announcement following a meeting between the ministry and a UN delegation which is currently visiting Sudan.

Ibrahim told reporters that the two sides agreed during the meeting that the international society should play a role in Darfur.

"The two sides have stressed the importance of the role which the international society could play to help implement the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) and strengthen the efforts exerted by the signatories of the DPA to realize the security and stability in Darfur," said the spokesman.

He also said that the UN delegation expressed understanding of the views of the Sudanese government concerning the issue.

Khartoum has called for international support and help for the AU peacekeeping forces currently deployed in Darfur so that the troops can continue their mission there.

"Members of the UN delegation also reiterated the world body`s respect for the sovereignty of Sudan and that any operation of the UN in Sudan should not be launched without an agreement of the Sudanese government," Ibrahim added.

On May 25, the Sudanese government agreed to led in the joint UN-AU team following a meeting between Sudanese President Omer al- Bashir and UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

The joint assessment team is demanded by a UN Security Council resolution adopted on May 16, which calls for a quick deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

Brahimi said that the team was to evaluate requirements for a transition of the peacekeeping mission to the UN from the AU.

The Sudanese government, meanwhile, refused any military role of the UN in Darfur, affirming that a peace agreement, which the government signed with a main Darfur rebel faction on May 5, did not include in its security arrangements any role for the UN or any other party except the AU.

Photo: The UN flag flies outside the UN Mission to Sudan (UNMIS) in Khartoum June 6, 2006, as the United Nations Security Council meets inside during their fact finding mission regarding the situation in Darfur. REUTERS/Chip East (SUDAN)



Photo: Members of the United Nations Security Council meet with Sudan's Minister of Council of Ministers Deng Alor (C) in Khartoum June 6, 2006, as the council tours the region on a fact finding mission about the situation in Darfur. REUTERS/Chip East (SUDAN)



Photo: Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, center, talks as Britain's UN Ambassador Sir Emyr Jones Parry, who is leading the UN mission, first left, looks on during their meeting, in Khartoum, Tuesday, June 6, 2006. (AP)

Jun 6, 2006 Malaysia Sun - UN to coach African Union on Darfur: The United Nations is stepping in to determine if UN peacekeepers should augment African Union troops in dealing with unrest in Darfur.

Arab League meeting July 26 to discuss Darfur relief aid

The Arab League called Tuesday for a region-wide meeting next month in Cairo to seek ways to provide aid to Darfur.

The 22-member states of the Arab League said the meeting July 26 will bring together member countries, aid groups and others to discuss ways of ending the inhumane conditions in Darfur.

UNICEF, which has received only 16% of the funding it requested for Darfur this year, has stopped some educational programs, cut back on supplies for its childhood malnutrition programs and stopped measles vaccinations for children. - AP/ST June 6, 2006.

Apr 10 2006 Gulf countries and their charities not publicised enough: UN's Jan Egeland says the Gulf region was among the most generous in the world. They are excellent at providing water and sanitation, very effective and quick. All the important work that the Gulf countries and their various charities are doing is not well enough recognized, in particular in the West."

May 17 2006 Translators needed in Darfur to help AU build trust - More "Mama Rosa's" needed too please!

Jun 5 2006 Arab League supports Joint AU-UN Mission in Darfur and calls on Arabs and Muslims outside Sudan to back DPA

EU hosts donors meeting July 7 on Darfur reconstruction

Major international donors will meet in Brussels next month to pledge funds to help rebuild Darfur and urge implementation of a fragile peace deal, a senior European Union official said.

The July 7 conference, to be hosted by the European Union, follows a United Nations' request to establish a plan for the reconstruction of Darfur and the gradual return of the more than 2 million refugees, the official said.

Among those attending will be the United Nations, the World Bank, the African Union, and donors including the United States, he said.

The conference will also try to find additional financing to extend the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur to September. - Reuters June 6, 2006.

Sudan will consult with respective political parties to discuss findings of UN military assessment mission next week

Photo: Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir (R) talks during a meeting with Britain's UN ambassador, Sir Emyr Jones Parry (L) in the capital Khartoum June 6, 2006. A UN Security Council delegation headed by Parry, arrived in Sudan for the first time on Monday to try to persuade the Khartoum government that a UN peacekeeping operation in Darfur was not tantamount to an invasion. (Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

Excerpt from Reuters report by Evelyn Leopold [I'm surprised to see it has a misleading title "Sudan postpones decision on UN force for Darfur". The UN's military assessment team has only just arrived in the Sudan not yet delivered its assessment report. How can anyone in the Sudanese government agree to a UN force for Darfur when they don't know what is proposed or mandate?]

Britain's UN ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, leader of the delegation, said at the news conference, "The message we brought was that the council was holding out a hand to Sudan" ...to alleviate the massive humanitarian crisis.

"There is no question of an intervention force," he said. He estimated that a UN operation would not be in place until the end of the year but the transition could begin well before that. The Security Council has to authorise the mission.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim said the government would take up the issue after the United Nations and the African Union conduct a military assessment mission this week and discuss their finding with the government. After that respective political parties would be consulted.

"So I think we are going on in the right direction," Ibrahim said after the council met Foreign Minister Lam Akol, a member of the former rebel Southern Sudan Liberation Movement, considered more sympathetic to the world body than other members of the government.

The final decision, diplomats said, would be up to President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, who was involved in Tuesday's meetings with the council members but who has remained noncommittal. "He will take this one step at a time," said one envoy. [edit]

Sudanese newspapers reflect fears a UN force would enter under enforcement provisions in Chapter 7 of the UN Charter and have free military reign. Chapter 7 is used for parts of nearly all peacekeeping operations for protecting civilians and for self-defence.

According to Jones Parry, Chapter 7 "is not an open ended use of force (and) is not targeted at government but those who want to undermine the (peace) agreement."

Russia's deputy ambassador Konstantin Dolgov, said of Chapter 7, "Once again, we have to take into consideration the views of the Sudanese government", indicating council discussions would be heated when a mandate is devised.

Note, Reuters' Evelyn Leopold has updated her June 6 report with a new title: Sudan president opposes UN force in Darfur -diplomats



Photo: Britain's UN ambassador Sir Emyr Jones Parry addresses the media after a meeting with Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir in the capital Khartoum, June 06, 2006. (Reuters/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah)

UPDATE June 6, 2006 AP report reprinted at Sudan Tribune - excerpt:

The government's opposition was fueled last month when a council resolution to spur planning for a handover was adopted under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter which allows military action, sparking fears of UN intervention in Sudan. The Sudanese were also frustrated that the resolution didn't pay tribute to the government for signing a peace agreement on May 5 with the largest rebel group in Darfur.

Russia's deputy UN ambassador, Konstantin Dolgov, told reporters there was strong Sudanese opposition to putting a peacekeeping force in Darfur under Chapter 7, "and we have to respect this position, because we have to have consent and agreement of the government."

US Deputy Ambassador Jackie Sanders said there was some opposition and some misunderstanding, "and as we went through, they became less concerned or less afraid of what it meant."

- - -

As a comparison to combative sounding reports by some Western journalists here's what Eritrea Daily Khartoum (KUNA) reported 6 June 2006 [Note, unlike Western media reports, it mentions "alongside the African Union"]

Sudan, UNSC discuss UN role in preserving peace in Darfur

Sudanese President Umar Al-Bashir and a delegation from the UN Security Council (UNSC) discussed Tuesday the UN role in preserving peace in Darfur.

In a press statement after the meeting, delegation's head and British Ambassador to the UN Sir Emyr Jones-Parry said discussed matters included arrangements relevant to the organization's participation in the peace process alongside the African Union (AU) to ensure utmost success, adding that the visit aims to affirm overall support for Sudan and international agencies operating in Darfur.

On his part, Sudan's Foreign Minister Lam Akol said Al-Bashir expressed willingness to fully cooperate with the UN to implement all relevant peace accords.

Akol termed the delegation's visit as successful and productive through having direct dialogue between Sudan and the UN, which opens more paths for collaboration.

The meeting, he added, affirmed the formation of the tripartite committee with the membership of the UN, AU and Sudan's government, noting that the committee will visit Darfur to determine its needs.

The delegation arrived in Sudan on Monday to persuade the government with the necessity of deploying international forces in Darfur.

- - -

June 6, 2006 AFP report - Sudan says it will deal with UN Darfur force 'step by step' - The UN's special envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk said it was vital to get Nur on board because the recalcitrant rebel leader from the Fur tribe represents 80 percent of those in Darfur camps. But Pronk hailed a reported let-up in rebel attacks saying "the parties didn't fight after May 5." "In May, there were attacks by (Janjaweed) militia and last week it stopped. I don't know how long it will last but it's a positive sign."

Eyewitnesses claim Chadians take part in attacks in eastern Chad alongside Sudanese janjaweed militia

UN refugee agency 'extremely concerned' at attacks by janjaweed militia, UN News Centre reported June 6, 2006 - excerpt:

The United Nations refugee agency today voiced "extreme concern" at continuing attacks by janjaweed militia from Sudan into eastern Chad.

213,000 refugees from Darfur are in a dozen UNHCR-administered camps in this remote border area.

UNHCR teams have interviewed many of the displaced, who said that on several occasions, they recognized Chadians from other tribes taking part in attacks together with the Sudanese janjaweed militia, alleging that those Chadians had concluded agreements with the militia to avoid attacks on their own properties and livestock.

The arrival of additional displaced people in Chadian villages and towns often strains already limited resources, including water.

Turabi says increase in attacks by JEM rebels likely in order to make themselves look big before coming to East Sudan peace talks

Sudan Tribune (Khartoum) report excerpt:

Turabi, who now heads his own opposition Popular Congress party, says that insurgents from the Justice and Equality Movement, currently fighting government forces in the western Darfur region as well as increasingly in the east, are a better bet for Sudan's future.

"On the ground they're not at all powerful in Darfur, but they're more intelligent, and they're more national. They think about the whole country."

While denying his reported links to the Islamist JEM, Turabi says that an increase in their attacks is likely ahead of peace talks for the east due to start in Asmara on June 13.

"They just want to assert themselves before they come to the negotiations, otherwise they are spoken to as an inferior. This is natural, all human beings are like that."

Nevertheless, Turabi's ideas are in many ways similar to those of the JEM, seeking a new form of Islamic democracy and rejecting the non-democratically elected caliphate system that predominated under early Islam.

"That was wrong. Everything is by consultation and it must be freedom for all, Muslims and non-Muslims. If someone attacks you with words, you must respond with words, if they attack your God, Allah, allow them to speak their minds."

[What a weasel. He changes colours to fit any bandwagon to jump on. See June 6 2006 Drnovsek and Prince Albert II agree on resolving Darfur crisis - JEM leader still in Slovenia? - Darfur's JEM rebel leader says of Darfur "We're going to have our own country."

And note May 28 2006: Turabi cancels London visit after entry visa delay - Sudan's Turabi calls for overthrow of Khartoum regime.]

UN Security Council delegation in Khartoum meets Sudanese President al-Bashir

On arrival in Khartoum Monday June 5, UN Security Council delegation chief and UK Ambassador to the UN Sir Emyr Jones Parry said the United Nations was there to work with the government.

"We're doing it in support of the people of Sudan. We're not doing it for any takeover. We're doing it with the government of Sudan all the time, and we're not seeking in any way to usurp the powers of the government of Sudan," he told reporters.

Full report BBC June 6, 2006.

UN News Centre report confirms all 15 Security Council member countries are represented on the mission, the majority of them at the level of ambassador. The Council mission is slated to visit Darfur and cross the border to Chad where 210,000 refugees from Darfur are living in camps.

Xinhua says on Thursday, the delegation is scheduled to pay a visit to Juba, capital of south Sudan, where its members are going to have talks with First Sudanese Vice President and President of the Government of the South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit as well as local senior officials.

The delegation will travel on Friday to Darfur, where they will meet in the al-Fashir city with Osman Mohammed Yousuf Kibr, Governor of the North Darfur state, and officials of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS).



Photo: Displaced Sudanese women queue at a water point 21 May 2006 in Abu Shouk camp, close to Al-Fasher, the capital of the war-torn Sudanese northern Darfur region. (AFP/File/Ramzi Haidar/Sudan Watch archive)

UN Security Council members meet Sudan's President al-Bashir

IRIN report June 6, 2006 - excerpt:

"The Security Council delegation is now meeting Lam Akol [the Sudanese foreign minister] and will meet with Bashir later today," said Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), on Tuesday.

The Council members, who arrived in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Monday, met Jan Pronk, special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and other UN officials Tuesday morning, she added. The meeting would be followed by one with Deng Alor, the Sudanese minister of cabinet affairs.

The delegation, led by Jones Parry of the United Kingdom, is expected to stress the importance of a full and rapid implementation of the 5 May Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA). The delegation will also seek the support of the Sudanese government to allow a UN force to take over the peacekeeping mission from 7,000 underfunded African Union (AU) troops.

Sudan recently agreed to allow a UN military planning team to go to Darfur, but it has stopped short of giving its consent to a UN force.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, was appointed to lead the planning team on Monday. The team is expected to arrive in Sudan later this week on a joint mission with the AU. It is expected to hold wide-ranging discussions with Sudanese authorities aimed at strengthening the AU monitoring force in Darfur and preparing for the possible transition to a UN peacekeeping operation.