Austria calls for the UN to intervene in Darfur

By David Cronin

Date: 19/01/06

Austria's EU presidency wants the United Nations to take over peacekeeping in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur after discovering severe weaknesses in the African-led force currently stationed there.

A joint assessment on Darfur by the EU's political and military staff and African Union (AU) representatives has found that while the force is close to its foreseen capacity of 6,000 soldiers and 1,600 police, its components are "not operating in a sufficiently joint and co-ordinated" manner.

Based on visits to Sudan in December, the assessment points to a weak flow of information between the force, saying that it can take two months for reports on violent incidents in Darfur to reach the force's headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The force has been hindered from deploying troops into "non-benign environments" because it has no military-piloted helicopters.

The assessment also says that members of the African peacekeeping mission have not "as they should have" protested against restrictions which the Khartoum government has placed on their freedom of movement.

Khartoum is accused of breaching its international obligations to stop the violence in Darfur by such underhand tactics as conducting military operations with white vehicles. The Janjaweed militia and other "proxy forces" for the government are continuing to destabilise Darfur in a way that shows "a clear disregard" for humanitarian principles, while rebels the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement have been blamed for threatening, intimidating and kidnapping peacekeepers.

Humanitarian access in the western part of Darfur is only at around 45%, the lowest since April 2004, the report says, citing problems of banditry, rape, hijacking and abduction of soldiers, UN staff and aid workers. Some 3.5 million people have been affected by the conflict, with almost 2m uprooted people living in camps.

In May last year, the international community pledged $312 million (EUR 312m) to peacekeeping in Darfur. But the assessment says that "predictable funding" can only be guaranteed for the next few months, although a peace support operation will be needed in Darfur for at least the next two or three years. The EU has provided EUR 160m to the African mission since January 2004. Darfur has been the main target of money drawn from the EU's EUR 250m African Peace Facility. A spokesman for Austria's EU presidency said that Austria was examining how that facility could be replenished once the sums allocated to it run out in 2007.

The spokesman said Austria backed last week's call by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, for the operation to be placed under UN control. Contacts have taken place between EU officials and the AU to see if this can be brought about, he added. So far, however, Khartoum has refused to agree that non-African troops could be stationed in Darfur.

A spokesman for Sudan's embassy to the EU said: "Any imposed solution will further exacerbate the situation which is already complicated."

"The government spares no effort in achieving national reconciliation and peaceful co-existence among the warring parties," the spokesman added.

Article reports that Austria's EU Presidency called on the United Nations to take over peacekeeping in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur. This came after a joint assessment by the EU's political and military staff and African Union (AU) representatives which had found that the components of the African Peace Facility currently stationed there were 'not operating in a sufficiently joint and co-ordinated' manner.