Sudan Agrees "Small" UN Darfur Troops

The Sudanese approval is "a very positive sign," said Ban.

The Sudanese approval is "a very positive sign," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon after he and African Union Commission chair Alpha Oumar Konare briefed the 15-member Council on the latest Darfur developments, Reuters reported Tuesday, April 17.

He said the United Nations and the AU would move quickly to recruit the peacekeepers, who would man control centers but not join infantry units.

But the new military personnel may take six months to recruit and deploy, UN officials said.

For Jean-Marie Guehenno, in charge of UN peacekeeping, Monday's agreement is a prelude to the larger force.

"This is not the robust force that Darfur needs. It's a support package to lay the groundwork for a future robust force," he said.

Khartoum earlier Monday gave its consent for the dispatch of 3,000 UN personnel — mostly military and police staff — to provide logistical, communications and air support to 7,000 under-equipped AU troops that have failed to stem four years of bloody ethnic strife in Darfur.

Khartoum's green light came after Ban last week reassured Sudan that helicopter gunships to be used by the UN contingent in Darfur would be for deterrence, not for offensive purposes.

The UN has come up with a three-stage proposal to settle the standoff: a light support package with UN police advisers, civilian staff and equipment, which has nearly been deployed. The second phase is the so-called heavy support package, which Sudan approved on Monday, including six attack helicopters that Khartoum had opposed until the last minute.

And the third stage is a peacekeeping force of more than 20,000 troops and police which Sudan has not accepted.

Konare has stressed the need to revive and broaden a wobbly peace deal reached between Khartoum and Darfur rebels last May.

Only one of the three negotiating rebel factions endorsed last year's Darfur peace agreement, which has remained a dead letter.

Skeptic US

"We've been down this path before. So we will see if it happens when it happens," said Wolff.

Still, the United States voiced skepticism, noting that Khartoum had reneged on previous agreements on letting troops into Darfur.

"We've been down this path before," said acting US Ambassador Alejandro Wolff. "So we will see if it happens when it happens."

He said no decision had been made on sanctions.

"We all need to be vigilant. All of this is in preparation for a hybrid (AU-UN) force," he told reporters and noted that the timetable for UN action "is very tight" as the mandate of the AU force in Darfur expires June 30.

In Khartoum, John Negroponte, the US deputy secretary of state, told reporters, "We must move quickly to a larger hybrid United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force with a single unified chain of command that conforms to U.N. standards and practices."

Negroponte urged Khartoum to disarm militias accused of some of the worst assaults against civilians in Darfur. The militias, he said, "could not exist without the Sudanese government's active support."

Sudan's acceptance on Monday of an interim plan is also expected to put in abeyance US-British plans to introduce sanctions against Khartoum so Sudan has a chance to carry out the pact.

The UN talks come amid growing and coordinated world pressure on Sudan to accept joint AU-UN peacekeeping amid fears of an even bigger humanitarian crisis in Darfur as the mandate of the AU force on the ground expires on June 30.

At least 200,000 people have been died as a result of four years of ethnic strife in Darfur and more than two million driven from their homes, according to the United Nations. Khartoum disputes those figures, but some sources say the death toll is much higher.