Sudan rejects adding UN with AU troops
Sudan-UN, Politics, 3/13/2007

The Bush administration is "extremely troubled" by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's recent letter to the United Nations, in which he appears to back away from prior commitments to the Darfur peace agreement, according to US State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey.

In a 14-page letter to the world body, President Bashir reportedly argued against plans to augment African Union (AU) troops with a hybrid AU-UN force that would help implement the peace framework established in November 2006 by leaders meeting at the AU's headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

An estimated 200,000 people have died in Darfur's four-year conflict, and millions more have been displaced.

Casey told reporters March 13 that it is "troubling" that Bashir now is trying to select which elements of the interim plan, known as the "heavy package," to help implement.

The heavy support package "is something that's been worked out by the AU with the United Nations, and it's what the AU thinks is necessary to be able to support the mission," Casey said, and the United States believes the package "needs to be provided for as soon as possible" to help the AU perform its peacekeeping functions.

The deputy spokesman added that the United States and others will need to "think seriously about implementing additional measures to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Darfur," if the Sudanese government continues efforts to "frustrate" the implementation of the Darfur peace agreement.

"I think the patience of the international community is limited, and I think that we, unfortunately, may be approaching a time when other steps will have to be taken," he said. "The benchmark for us has always been whether the Sudanese government is permitting the implementation of the hybrid force to move forward."

" Sudan [is] taking a step back from its willingness to cooperate and implement this package," he said.

He also said there has been continued violence, some of it from some rebel factions, and called upon all sides to obey the terms of the cease-fire. Those who have not signed on to the Darfur peace agreement should do so and adhere to it, he urged.

"The only real way to achieve a lasting solution in Darfur is to have all sides sit down and work out the kind of agreement that ultimately was achieved between the North and the South in Sudan," Casey said. That also involves moving forward on the deployment of the hybrid force, he added.

A senior State Department official said the first page of Bashir's letter contained an acceptance of the need to deploy the heavy support package in Darfur, but the bulk of the 13 pages that followed "are spent walking away from a commitment to the full package and delineating parts of it that they don't like, and raising concerns and exemptions."

The official said that even though an overwhelmingly positive position by Sudan toward the deployment of the force was not expected, "I think people were surprised by exactly how far of a pulling back this represents."

Previous Stories:
  US: Sudanese will have real role in Sudanese problem of Darfur   (3/6/2007)
  Sudan: talks continue on UN-African force as more killings reported in Darfur   (2/21/2007)
  Sudan's peace accord making progress: US   (1/27/2007)
  On talk of ceasefire in Darfur   (1/13/2007)
  UN envoy in talks with Sudan government, rebels on Darfur   (1/6/2007)
  Sudan: UN personnel in Darfur to support African Union force   (12/30/2006)

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