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UN deployment in Darfur uncertain: UN envoy
UN envoy Jan Pronk cast doubt on prospects for a robust UN force in Sudan's troubled Darfur province as he warned of growing anti-UN sentiment in Khartoum fueled by fears of a "conspiracy against the Arab-Islamic world". Pronk, the UN special representative in Sudan, also cautioned that sending a NATO-led force to protect beleaguered civilians in the western Sudanese province would be "a recipe for disaster". He spoke of rising anti-UN feelings in Khartoum as authorities there fiercely oppose plans to replace an ineffective African Union force in Darfur by a mobile, more robust UN contingent.
Pronk told reporters that while Khartoum did not oppose the use of NATO logistical capabilities to support a Darfur operation, it was dead against deploying a NATO-led force on its soil. A NATO-led force "would be a recipe for disaster... People would really start a Jihad (holy war) against it," he said.| "And somebody might get hurt!" |
"The (Khartoum) government is taking a very strong position against the transition (to the UN) and that is new," he noted. "There is fear in Khartoum that the transition will be a conspiracy, which will bring Sudan in same situation as Iraq."| Personally, I prefer a climate of fear in Khartoum. |
"The climate in Khartoum against the UN is heating up very strongly. There are threats, warnings," Pronk said. "They speak of recolonization, invasion, imperialism, (a) conspiracy against the Arab-Islamic world."| The dhimmis must be getting uppity again. |
Pronk said there was "genuine concern" in Sudan about perceived ulterior motives behind a planned Darfur operation although he conceded that this concern could be "manipulated".| I submit that it's outcomes, not motives, that are causing all this concern. |
He cited warnings he received from members of the Sudanese government and intelligence reports about threats from the Al-Qaeda terror network that prompted him to make security arrangements for his staff.| His aides (and families and goats) have all moved into the guest houses of the local holy men. For the, um...security arrangements. |
Pronk also cautioned that the African Union Peace and Security Council might be reconsidering its January decision in principle to replace the African Union force known as AMIS by a robust UN force as demanded by UN chief Kofi Annan. The 7,000-strong AMIS, which was deployed in 2004, has been suffering from poor funding and inadequate resources to escalate contain the escalating bloodshed in Sudan's western region. "We do not know whether the African Union will reconfirm its decision (at its March 10 meeting). That is not certain any more," Pronk said.
Meanwhile two key members of the African Union, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, Tuesday also rejected replacing the AU force in Darfur with UN peackeepers. The two leaders "stressed the importance of the African force's presence in Darfur without any outside intervention," the Egyptian ambassador to Libya Mohammad Rafaat al-Tahtawi told reporters after talks in the Libyan town of Misrata.
Posted by: Seafarious 2006-03-01 |
