Britain, France strip more criticisms of Sudan from U.N. resolution to boost its chances of passage 

July 30, 2007
International Herald Tribune
Original Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/30/news/UN-GEN-UN-Sudan-Darfur.php
 
UNITED NATIONS: (AP) Britain and France stripped more harsh language from a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would authorize a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur in an attempt to win passage for the proposal this week.
The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, is the third revision of the proposal by the co-sponsors this month.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Security Council members were working to finalize the document so it could be brought to a vote in the next couple of days.
We are very close and our expectation is to finalize the resolution in the next 24 hours, he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.
The draft calls for the deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union force of up to 26,000 to try to stop the fighting between ethnic African rebels and pro-government janjaweed militia that has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since 2003.
The hybrid force would replace the poorly equipped AU force of 7,000 now in Darfur.
Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, reacted harshly to a version of the draft that circulated at U.N. headquarters last week, calling it ugly and awful.
On Monday, however, Abdalhaleem declined to comment on the latest revised proposal, which was circulated to Security Council members over the weekend. The consultations are at a sensitive stage, he said.
The latest draft removes a specific mention of ongoing attacks by government forces and janjaweed militiamen against civilians and humanitarian workers in Darfur and drops a strongly worded condemnation of continued violations of the Darfur Peace Agreement.
It also scales back the peacekeeping force's mandate slightly, removing a section permitting the troops to take all necessary action to monitor arms violations in the desert region under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.
Chapter 7 deals with threats to peace and security and can be enforced through a range of measures, from breaking diplomatic and trade relations to military intervention.
The resolution still allows the force to take action under Chapter 7 to protect its personnel, humanitarian workers and civilians from attacks — a core element that Khalilzad said last week the co-sponsors were not willing to compromise on.
The conflict in Darfur began in February 2003 when ethnic African tribes rebelled against what they consider decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government. In May 2006, the government signed the Darfur Peace Agreement with one of the rebel groups, but the U.N. and international observers say violence has continued.
The U.N. and Western governments have pressed Sudan since November to accept a U.N. plan for a joint force. After stalling for months, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed in April to a heavy support package to strengthen the AU force, including 3,000 U.N. troops, police and civilian personnel along with aircraft and other equipment.
The new draft lays the groundwork for the deployment of the much larger 26,000-strong hybrid force, which will be called UNAMID. The force will have up to 19,555 military personnel, including 360 military observers and liaison officers, a civilian component including up to 3,772 international police, and 19 special police units with up to 2,660 officers.
The draft calls on UNAMID to start taking over command of the joint U.N.-AU forces in Darfur by October, with complete control to be shifted to the hybrid operation by December.
China, which imports two-thirds of Sudan's oil and has opposed sanctions against the country in the past, praised the revised proposal Monday. It is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council that can veto resolutions.
There have been a lot of improvements on the original draft, Chinese U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said. We all want to work on this resolution to make it a good resolution.