Sudan may dodge donor conference

The success of a donors' conference on Darfur to be held in Brussels next week is in doubt because the Sudanese president might opt not to attend.

The conference, which will be attended by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the head of the commission of the African Union Alpha Oumar Konare, is designed to put pressure on the relevant parties to implement a peace agreement signed in May and seek financial backing for the peace process and reconstruction.

But fighting continues in Darfur and the Sudanese government refuses to allow a UN peacekeeping force to police the area, which will not help the talks.

The first part of the conference on Tuesday (July 18) will focus on the political and security situation. The possibility of a UN force taking over from the current African Union mission will be discussed. The AU mission has failed to halt fighting in Darfur by rebels who have refused to sign up to the peace agreement. The mission is seen as weak and, with 7,000 personnel, too small to be effective.

The UN wants to deploy twice as many troops and is supported by all the major powers and the AU. But the Sudanese government is against this. "Our view is that the most important thing is to make the peace agreement work ...We are terribly happy with the African Union mission," said Sudan's ambassador to the EU, Ali Yousif Ahmed.

The European Commission said the idea of a UN force must be raised. "We are all in favour of this transition in the presence of UN African troops, the African Union agrees, the EU, the US and Canada," said a spokesman for the Commission.

There are also suggestions that the Sudanese government is fearful that there may be attempts by the UN to hand over those involved in the conflict to the International Criminal Court.

On the sidelines of an AU summit earlier this month, Annan failed to get Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to agree to the UN force. The disagreement could keep a high-level representative from the Sudanese government away from next week's conference. But the Sudanese embassy insisted that the government had not yet decided who to send because of the late arrival of the invitation.

The second part of the conference will seek financing for Darfur. China, Japan, the US and Canada along with EU member states, in particular the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, are expected to put up the necessary funds. But donors are only likely to pledge money if they feel a political solution to the continuing conflict can be reached. "There is a minimum of political guarantees needed to allow the situation to stabilise and reconstruction to take place. Otherwise we can't expect donors to commit," a Commission spokesman said.

The EU has already pledged €100 million in emergency funds since the peace agreement was signed and has been helping fund the AU mission in Darfur since 2004. The Commission said that while the desired figure for donations to Darfur was up to the UN, support for the peace process would be "extremely expensive".

The success of a donors' conference on Darfur to be held in Brussels next week is in doubt because the Sudanese president might opt not to attend.