UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was "unfortunate" that the African Union (AU) has problems with a proposal for a 23,000-member AU-UN force to help end the bloodshed in Darfur that was given to the Sudanese government for approval.
The UN announced on May 24 that the AU and UN had agreed on the proposal for the hybrid force and it was handed to Sudan's UN Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad.
He said on Thursday that Sudan agreed to technical talks on the proposal from June 5 to June 6 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and UN officials said on Friday they expect the meeting to go ahead.
But the final text of the proposal is being discussed again to try to address the AU's concerns. The main problem is that the original text says the UN will have overall command and control of the hybrid force and the AU wants joint control, UN diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are private.
"There was very close consultation between the African Union and the United Nations on this joint proposal," Ban told reporters after briefing the Security Council. "We are now working to have clarifications on some elements of the draft."
"It was unfortunate that the African Union has come back with some changes after the Security Council has adopted and issued a presidential statement. But I think on the basis of a spirit of cooperation and unity in working and addressing this Darfur situation, I am confident that the African Union and the UN will find common understanding on this issue," he said.
The presidential statement adopted last Friday by the council welcomed the transmission of the proposal for the hybrid force to Sudan and urged all parties to meet their obligations.
The hybrid force is the third and final phase of a package that the UN and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed to last November. Since then, however, al-Bashir has backtracked on accepting UN troops and approval of the hybrid force remains a question mark.
The four-year conflict between ethnic African rebels and pro-government janjaweed militia in the vast western Darfur region has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.
A beleaguered, 7,000-member AU force has been unable to stop the fighting. Neither has a peace agreement that was signed a year ago by the government and one rebel group.
After five months of stalling, the Sudanese president gave the go-ahead for the second phase in mid-April -- a "heavy support package" with 3,000 UN troops, police and civilian personnel along with six attack helicopters and other equipment.
Ban said the entire international community "has been frustrated many times over the lack of progress" in ending the Darfur conflict.
But he said that since taking over as secretary-general in January, he believes he has made "some progress, even though slow," including agreement on the heavy support package and preparing the hybrid proposal.
Ban said he spoke to al-Bashir in the past few days and "he is also committed to see early resolution of this issue."
On the political front, the secretary-general said, UN envoy Jan Eliasson was trying to arrange a "pre-negotiation phase" with rebel groups this month and next month.
"I hope that before August we will be able to enter into the negotiation phase in political dialogue," Ban said.
Ban also pointed to a new agreement on humanitarian access between Sudan and the UN.
"This process may be slow, painful, but I think we are moving towards early resolution of this issue," he said.
China buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil and has close commercial ties with Khartoum. Some campaigners for an end to the Darfur conflict have called for a boycott of next year's Beijing Olympics if there is no solution, but Ban disagreed.
"The Chinese government has also been exerting their utmost efforts," he said, pointing to a new Chinese envoy for Darfur, the Chinese president's visit in February and other Chinese diplomatic efforts.
"I appreciate such a Chinese government role," Ban said. "It is helpful."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia