Veteran politicians urge Darfur deployment

KHARTOUM - A group of veteran politicians formed by Nelson Mandela urged the international community on Tuesday to supply equipment needed to allow a joint U.N-African Union force to deploy to Darfur in western Sudan.

They also said the north-south partners in Sudan's coalition government should accept international mediation to end a two-month stand-off that threatens to tear apart Africa's largest country.

"Darfuris are eager and in some cases desperate for the arrival of the UNAMID force," the report from the so-called Elders said of a planned joint U.N./AU mission to the region. "If anything, their expectations are dangerously high."

"We need a hybrid U.N.-AU force in Darfur with sufficient equipment and support. We need it now."

The Elders, a group of 13 men and women, was formed by former South African President Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel earlier this year.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno has cast doubt on deployment of the mission because of Sudan's restrictions on its movements and refusal to accept non-African troops.

Western nations have also not provided vital equipment such as attack and transport helicopters needed by the force.

"We urge you to ask your government to increase pledges of troops, funding, and equipment," the report said. "We urge the government in Khartoum to facilitate their entry."

The Elders' first visit was to Darfur.

"We chose Darfur as our first mission because it is a blight on the conscience of humanity," the report said. International experts estimate some 200,000 have died and 2.5 million been driven from their homes in the vast Western region.

SUDAN'S INTERTWINED CRISIS

During the visit The Elders -- Machel, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and U.N. veteran former envoy Lakhdar Brahimi -- realised the fate of Darfur was intertwined with Sudan's other political crises.

A north-south peace deal called the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005 ended Africa's longest civil war and paved the way for power and wealth sharing and democratic transformation in Sudan.

But a stalemate over implementation of the deal meant former southern rebels withdrew from the national coalition government, the most serious challenge to peace in Sudan in recent years.

"The success of the CPA is Darfur's dream; its failure is Darfur's nightmare," The Elders said. "This is of critical importance to the Darfur crisis and central to peace and security in Sudan."

Sudan's north-south civil war claimed 2 million lives and drove at least 4 million from their homes. It broadly pitted Khartoum's Islamist government against mostly Christian, animist rebels, complicated by issues of oil, ethnicity and ideology.

The Elders said the lack of trust between the former foes was so great they needed outside mediation to resolve outstanding disputes over the status of the central oil-rich Abyei region, the demarcation of borders and the withdrawal of northern troops from southern oil fields.

"The lack of trust between the two sides is eroding the capacity for compromise. Each holds the other responsible for delays and obstruction," the report said.