New Darfur peace mission chief wants deal in a year

KHARTOUM, Thursday

The new head of the joint United Nations/African Union peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region has said he wants a peace deal in a year and will step up his force’s involvement in mediation to help it happen.

Ibrahim Gambari told reporters any further delay in resolving the seven-year conflict in Sudan’s remote west meant the world might become distracted by other seismic events in Sudan, primarily a 2011 referendum on southern independence.

Darfuris have seen a string of failed ceasefires and peace agreements since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Sudan’s government in 2003, provoking a government counter insurgency campaign that Washington labelled genocide.

Gambari, a former Nigerian Foreign minister and UN special envoy to Myanmar, took over Darfur’s UNAMID peacekeeping mission in January and spoke after his first three-day trip to Darfur in the new job.

Asked what he wanted to achieve in his first year, he replied: “To see that a comprehensive peace agreement is actually signed, so that we can implement that.”

He said he did not know whether such an outcome was likely but added: “It is important to have that target ... just to aim at it. It is in everybody’s interest to try and do whatever we can before the end of this year ... I feel that in 2011 attention will be focused on something else – the referendum.”

Sudan’s oil-producing south secured a referendum on whether to split off as an independent country under a faltering 2005 peace deal that ended a two-decade civil war with north Sudan that was separate from the Darfur conflict.

Gambari took over from the more low-profile Rodolphe Adada, who faced criticism for not being forceful enough with Khartoum and for the slow deployment of the force.

Gambari told reporters UNAMID currently had around 75 per cent of its 26,000-strong complement of soldiers and police in Darfur and was ready to take a more active role, particularly in mediating between Khartoum and rebels.

“Right now, we are actors with a supporting role (in the mediation). I want us to move to do more than that.”

Gambari said he supported efforts to resolve the conflict by joint UN/African Union Darfur mediator Djibril Bassole, particularly the way they had brought civilian groups into talks. But he suggested more could be done to coordinate with other ongoing peace efforts.

“How do we harmonise this so that everybody will know their own role jointly moving the peace process? If it is possible to get clarity on that I would very much welcome that.”

Direct talks between the government and rebels are yet to start in Bassole’s latest round of the peace process in Qatar.

Gambari said one of his main challenges would be Sudan’s volatile relationship with Chad, which borders Darfur.

Chad and Sudan, which accuse each other of backing rebels in each other’s territories, recently reached the latest in a series of deals to ease tensions.

Sparked trouble

But Gambari said Sudan’s efforts to improve the situation by bringing anti-N’Djamena rebels away from the border, deeper into Sudan, had sparked more trouble inside Darfur.

“From the reports I have been getting, in the areas where they have been moved to, all kinds of atrocities are being perpetrated against the civilian population,” he said.

“I told the Sudanese government today, in an attempt to solve one problem, we have to be mindful we may be creating another.” (Reuters)