Brussels, 18/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - Although Sudan has still not given its go-ahead to a United Nations operation in Darfur and it seems that the UN, like the African Union and the European Union, feels certain the transition cannot be achieved until January on the basis of the AU force that will have been reinforced in the meantime, the United States continues to insist that the UN operation should commence as soon as possible.
Before examining the contributions that the different donors are ready to make to allow the AU operation in Darfur to continue, the International Conference organised in Brussels on 18 July allowed participants to discuss the political and security aspects of the question. It provided EU High Representative Javier Solana with an opportunity to point out that “the current situation requires immediate action” to assist AMIS (the AU force) step up security and support the effective implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement. To achieve this, AMIS must define and adopt a new peacekeeping posture immediately and more robustly, take forward vigorous 24 hour operations and proactive monitoring in all sectors, and set up the Joint Force Mission HQ. For this and for personnel training, Solana assured the AU that it will have the support of the EU. He also stressed, however, that AMIS needs the support of donors to: (1) ensure that the 8 AMIS units due to rotate soon are trained, prepared and deployed; (2) improve its communications equipment and training, additional tactical air and ground mobility; and (3) pay for salaries and other running costs. “The donors have been generous. But we now need to resource AMIS properly for this final and critical phase”, he warned. At political level, Javier Solana stressed that “Darfur is, by far, the worst conflict in Africa today. It affects Sudan, is now already speeding to the whole region (Chad, Central African Republic)”.
He also thought that he did not foresee any “realistic exit from the Darfur conflict without such a transition” to the UN mission (he said that neither could he “imagine that the government of Sudan would continue to oppose it”. Mr Solana called on participants to tackle the raft of political issues together, including consolidation of the peace agreement, possible sanctions against those breaching the cease-fire agreement, disarming of the Janjaweed militias, cross-border questions and the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue.
According to Javier Solana, who was addressing the press at the beginning of the afternoon, these discussions on political and security issues, had been “very positive”, as had the lunch with the Sudanese minister for foreign affairs. He said that “this is the second time we have met in this format and we will probably meet up once again at the end of the year. He added that this demonstrated that “Darfur remains at the top of our agenda”. Said Djinnit, the African Union Commissioner for peace and security said that an absolute priority had to be afforded to security and the consolation of the Peace Agreement signed in Abuja, which is still “fragile” and which “must be protected against spoilers”. He indicated that AMIS needed $170 million till September but already had half of the amount. It will need at least $440 million by the end of the year.
The Deputy Secretary General of the UN for peace keeping operation, Jean Marie Guehenno highlighted the need to develop the political process and strengthen AMIS in view of the transition to a UN operation. He considered that dialogue with the Sudanese government had become “very constructive” and that now id should tackle “more practical aspects”. According to Mr Solana, “many things have been clarified”. While emphasising that AMIS had been a success, commissioner Louis Michel felt that “the solution to Darfur is wholly political and not military” and he pointed out that 3.5 million people needed aid in Darfur and that there were more than 200,000 refugees in Chad. He announced that the Commission had, on 18 July, freed €40 million for additional humanitarian aid from its reserve, bringing the EU effort to €120 million in 2006. The EU will also contribute another €25 million to Amis. American Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer called particularly for transition as rapidly as possible to a UN operation: she said that this had originally been scheduled to begin on 30 September and that “we can no longer wait months”. The United States have committed 116 dollars to AMIS, particularly to increase the number of troops deployed, and for additional humanitarian aid.