Ban tells UN Council to Speed up Darfur Mandate

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Monday to move quickly in authorizing up to 26,000 troops and police in Darfur, an apparent reference to a dispute among members.

The council is considering a five-page resolution sponsored by Britain, France and Ghana that Sudan and several other council members believe contains too many references to humanitarian and other issues, including a threat of "further measures" if any of the parties "fail to fulfill their commitments or cooperate fully."

Noting it had been one month since the Khartoum government accepted his proposals for a joint United Nations-African Union force, Ban told a news conference, "I sincerely hope that the Security Council will take the necessary action within this week."

Without the resolution, member states will not commit personnel to Sudan's violent Darfur region. The draft calls for contributors to "finalize" their contributions within 90 days.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died.

Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Abdelmahmood Abdelhaleem said, "The draft as it stands now creates a lot of difficulty for us." He said it should be "more Sudan friendly," an apparent reference to the threat of other measures, such as sanctions.

In Khartoum on Sunday, Ali al-Sadig, spokesman for the foreign minister, said, "At the current stage we do not accept it, we have reservations."

The resolution would allow the mission "to use all necessary means," a euphemism for a use of force, "in the areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities."

USE OF FORCE

Force could be used to ensure the security of the mission's personnel and humanitarian workers and "to protect civilians under threat of physical violence" as well as to seize or collect arms.

Some council members but not Abdelhaleem have objected to the tough mandate, which Jean-Marie Guehenno, the head of peacekeeping said needed to be "robust" for commanders "because the situation in Darfur is a very challenging one."

Specifically, the text would authorize a ceiling of 19,555 military personnel and 6,400 civilian police.

Infantry troops are expected to be drawn mainly from African nations. The new operation, called the United Nations-African Union mission in Darfur, or UNAMID, will absorb the 7,000 African Union troops currently in Darfur.

Logistics and headquarters personnel are expected to be drawn from other nations, and Ban said that China would soon send military engineers and a reconnaissance group leaves for Sudan on Tuesday.

Ban said several hundred international troops, or more, will be ready to deploy by October but he would "push for September." However, the bulk of the so-called large "hybrid" force is not expected to be deployed until well into next year, U.N. officials have said.

On the political front, Ban said there was a "successful" first round of talks with international envoys in Tripoli, Libya on Sunday in an effort to get a dozen splintered rebel groups to come to peace talks with the government.

"Our intention is to step up the pace of political negotiations involving all parties -- rebel leaders, tribal leaders, government leaders, " Ban said. "The goal is to get them around a table by early September."

He said he would visit Darfur but gave no date, saying the timing would depend on when "my visit could do most good in terms of cementing our advances.

"We must lock in our partners' commitments, on the ground and diplomatically," Ban said.