Britain, France and Ghana Wednesday circulated a draft UN
Security Council resolution, authorizing the deployment of a joint
African Union (AU)-UN peacekeeping force of up to 26,000 troops in
Sudan's Darfur region.
The draft said the proposed force, known as the United
Nations-African Union mission in Darfur, or UNAMID, would consist
of up to 19,555 military personnel and a civilian component of up
to 3,772 police personnel and 19 formed police units.
It said the troops will have a "unity of command and control"
and "command and control structures ... will be provided by the
United Nations."
The draft stated that the contingent would be deployed for "an
initial period of 12 months" in order to support the implementation
of the Darfur Peace Agreement, signed in May last year by the
largest rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement, and the
Sudanese government with the aim of ending the fighting in
Darfur.
The text urged all parties in the region to immediately end
hostilities and attacks and called on the Sudanese government and
the rebel groups to hold talks in search of a political
solution.
It warned that the council "will take further measures," if "the
parties to the conflict in Darfur fail to fulfill their commitments
or cooperate fully with this resolution." It does not give details
of what these measures will be.
The draft resolution requested UN chief Ban Ki-moon to report
immediately to the council on any failure by the parties to comply
with this resolution.
It is still not known when the draft will be put to a vote in
the 15-member Security Council.
Sudan's government agreed to support unconditionally the
deployment of the hybrid AU-UN peacekeeping force in the Darfur
region following talks in Khartoum with a delegation of the
Security Council in June.
(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2007)
