Looks like Kofi Annan might get one last diplomatic victory before his term as secretary general of the UN finally ends. One of the most egregious international situations to have occurred while he was serving in the UN was the genocide in the Sudan, and Annan has blamed the UN for failing to put a stop to it. That may be about to change. Finally it appears that a last minute attempt to placate the Sudanese could actually work, as they will be allowing 20,000 peacekeeping troops into the Darfur region to try and get a handle on the situation.

The Sudanese government has accepted the U.N. package for Darfur, including the deployment of what is called a "hybrid" peacekeeping operation of U.N. and African Union troops, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday.

Spokesman Sadeq al-Magli said the number of troops in the hybrid force "would be decided by the commander and his committee, and we have to state clearly that the entire command would be from the African Union."

The comment reflected his government's long-standing opposition to the deployment of 20,000 U.N. troops in Darfur, as proposed by the U.N. Security Council.

Initial rejection of the plan stemmed partly due to the fact the proposed force only contained a small contingent from Africa. The new plan consists of a much larger percentage of African Union troops, which apparently is enough to satisfy the Sudanese government and assure them that it is not, in fact, a colonial invasion.

In deference to Khartoum's opposition, the U.N. scaled back its plans to replace the African Union force of 7,000 troops in Darfur with the much bigger U.N. operation and, since early November, has been pushing to reinforce the existing peacekeepers with smaller numbers of U.N. personnel as well as technical and financial assistance.

Speaking Thursday -- before the government's assent was announced -- al-Magli said a Darfur peacekeeping mission would be "a hybrid operation and not international or joint forces."

He said Friday that the peacekeeping troops would come mainly from African Union countries, but the U.N. would provide technical assistance, consultants and military and police experts.

Earlier Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he believed the Sudan government had also agreed to make renewed efforts to enforce a cease-fire and negotiate peace with those Darfur rebels who rejected the peace agreement of May. Annan said he had heard that President Omar al-Bashir would approve "a full cease-fire, a renewed effort to bring all parties into (the) political process, and deployment of the proposed African Union-United Nations hybrid force."

The world will be holding its breath and hoping that the cease fire agreement holds this time. But there have been truces before that failed, so we shouldn't be getting too optimistic yet. But still, any improvement in the Sudan is a step in the right direction.

hadees

Austin, TX

December 2003

DEC 22, 2006 10:42 PM

This is really good news but I hope the UN troops are ready to fight because I have some doubts if all sides will honor it. But even if it doesn't hold at least the UN is finally sending troops in.

MrCrisp

Charleston, SC

August 2004

DEC 22, 2006 11:09 PM

what-keeping?

ZPO

Olympia, WA

July 2004

DEC 23, 2006 12:57 AM

"would be decided by the commander and his committee, and we have to state clearly that the entire command would be from the African Union."

That is the chunk that concerns me more than just a wee bit. One of the toughest things to get right in any international deployment is the command structure.

emotedcreations

Germany

July 2006

DEC 23, 2006 11:12 PM

Does it concern anyone else that in the past AUMIS has been effectively disconnected from the problems at hand? Otherwise, this is very good news. However, I'm cautiously optimistic.

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