Sudan denies UN visas

By Evelyn Leopold
April 19, 2006
The Washington Post
Original Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/19/AR2006041901951.html
 
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Sudan refused to grant visas for a U.N. military assessment mission planning a U.N. peacekeeping operation in Darfur, a U.N. spokesman said on Wednesday.
The Khartoum government has not consented to U.N. troops to augment the African Union soldiers currently trying to stop the killing and rape Sudan's Darfur region. But officials said they would discuss it after a peace pact, under negotiation in Abuja, Nigeria.
Salim Ahmed Salim, the African Union's chief mediator at the Abuja talks between the government and two rebels groups, told the Security Council on Tuesday he expected a ceasefire deal by April 30 but acknowledged frustrations lay ahead.
Hedi Annabi, a U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, went to Khartoum this week and spoke to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and other officials about sending the U.N. team to Darfur.
They felt this was not the time for a U.N. assessment mission to go into Darfur until the Abuja process was completed, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. We have a clear political line from the Sudanese at this point.
But Dujarric said planning continued and options for an eventual force in Darfur would be presented to the Security Council. It's much more a bump in the road than the end of the road for us in terms of contingency planning, he said.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said, That's clearly a mistake that undercuts our ability to do contingency planning.
Still, there has been hesitation among African Union officials about placing their 7,000 troops in Darfur under U.N. command. North African Arab nations support Sudan.
DELAY IN SANCTIONS
The Abuja process has forced a delay in putting to a vote a U.S. draft resolution that would impose sanctions on four Sudanese for abuses in Darfur. The sanctions, including a travel ban and asset freeze, would be the first against any party in the Darfur conflict.
Bolton told reporters there was overwhelming support for the sanctions decision but there are still questions about timing.
China and Russia, with support from Qatar, blocked earlier efforts to impose sanctions, warning that such measures could derail the Abuja talks. But Bolton, by introducing a resolution, was daring them to cast vetoes.
Now, diplomats said, three African members -- Ghana, Tanzania and the Congo Republic -- also wanted to wait until next week and have the sanctions measures adopted at the same time as an encouraging statement on the Abuja talks.
A resolution needs nine vote in favor and no veto from the 15-nation council's five permanent members.
Both the United States and Britain said none of the four men were involved in the two-year Abuja negotiations.
Actions would be against individuals responsible for gross violations of human rights or violations of the ceasefire, Deputy British Ambassador Adam Thomson said.
It would have the incidental benefit of sending an indirect message to Abuja that the council is absolutely serious about returning peace to Darfur, he said.
The four Sudanese include two rebel commanders, a pro-government militia leader and a Sudan Air Force commander who had been in Darfur.
The Darfur conflict erupted in 2003 when mostly non-Arab tribes took up arms, accusing the Arab-dominated government of neglect.
Khartoum retaliated by arming mainly Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, who began a campaign of murder, rape, arson and plunder that drove more than 2 million villagers into squalid camps in Darfur and in neighboring Chad. Khartoum denies responsibility.