Envoy Says Sudan Doesn't Want U.N. Force in Darfur 
By Warren Hoge
February 28, 2005
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/international/africa/28cnd-sudan.html

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/united_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org \o More articles about the United Nations. UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 — Sudan has withdrawn its support for a United Nations peacekeeping force to replace African Union troops now in the conflicted Darfur region and is lobbying other countries to help discourage the substitution, Jan Pronk, the United Nations envoy for Sudan, said today. 
The government is taking a very strong position against a transition to the U.N., and that is new, Mr. Pronk said. Sudan has sent delegations to many countries in the world in order to plead its case let the A.U. stay and let the U.N. not come.
In another move indicating a further stall in the international effort to curb violence in Darfur, John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador, conceded the failure of an American effort to produce a resolution on a United Nations mission to Sudan by the end of February, when the United States occupied the Security Council presidency.
It is something we have pushed hard for, and we're going to continue to push hard even though tomorrow is March 1 because this is something that we feel very strongly about, Mr. Bolton said.
Other members of the Security Council had resisted taking up the subject until the African Union made a formal request for bringing in the United Nations, which had been expected at a meeting of the organization this Friday. Today, that meeting was postponed until March 10.
In its present political situation, we do not know whether the A.U. next Friday will reconfirm its decision that had been taken in principle or if the A.U. will take a new decision that the Security Council cannot say, 'Yes, we take over' and then we are back to scratch, Mr. Pronk said.
He said the Sudanese government was now portraying a United Nations entry as a precursor to a Western takeover of the country. They speak about recolonization, imperialism; they speak about Iraq and Afghanistan; they speak about conspiracy against the Arab and Islamic world, he said. It's easy to get heated opposition to the U.N. even among people who don't like the government.
The Sudanese government has also raised the specter of an Al Qaeda attack in Sudan, Mr. Pronk said. They say Al Qaeda will threaten governments they see as sitting in the same corner with the West or the international community that they despise, he said.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and up to two million villagers driven from their homes in Darfur because of attacks on civilians by government-backed Arab militias on camel and horseback. In a deepening of one of the world's worst refugee crises, the chaos in Darfur has now spilled across the border into Chad.
The Security Council on Feb. 3 directed Secretary General Kofi Annan to begin putting together a contingency plan for turning the 7,000-man African Union force into a United Nations blue helmet force of at least twice that size. The Sudanese government gave its backing to the idea.
The plan was a central topic in a meeting on Feb. 13 between Mr. Annan and President Bush at the White House. Mr. Bush later backed a larger force for Darfur and further suggested that NATO could play a supporting role.
Security Council diplomats say action, including possible sanctions on Sudan, is being resisted by three countries in particular: China, a purchaser of Sudanese oil; Qatar, the council's Arab representative; and Russia, which historically opposes sanctions.
One Security Council ambassador, who would not speak for attribution, said he believed Sudan's allies, having succeeded in frustrating the American effort to speed action, would now try to delay consideration until April when China takes over the presidency of the council.