Jan Pronk: UN Gave in to Khartoum on Darfur Resolution

Posted on August 11, 2007
Filed Under Sudan, Darfur, UN |

Gee, ya think?

August 9, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — U.N. negotiators gave in to Khartoum over a joint Darfur force, weakening it and essentially enshrining a 2006 peace deal rejected by many rebels and civilians in western Sudan, a former top U.N. envoy said.

Jan Pronk said the Sudanese government had been very successful at watering down a U.N. resolution to deploy 26,000 U.N. and African Union troops and police to Darfur, adding without strong leadership, the force would be paralysed.

While conceding that the resolution to dispatch troops was not good, Pronk said “anything is better at the moment (than) not doing anything and just talking“.

This is precisely how I feel about it. It’s simply the lesser of 2 evils.

Pronk said the removal, at Sudan’s request, of any mention of disarming the Janjaweed militia, mobilised by the government and accused of atrocities in Darfur, was disturbing.

Tell me about it.

Pronk said using Chapter VII to implement the Darfur peace deal signed by only one rebel negotiating factions last year changes the United Nations’ role in the region.

“That means that the U.N. … will have to take a position against those who do not accept the (deal) as it is. The U.N. will no longer be a neutral force.”

He said it left little room to manoeuvre for a renewed political process, which hopes to bring all factions to the negotiating table. Non-signatory rebels want to scrap last year’s deal and start from scratch.

“The Security Council resolution is more or less giving credibility to the position of the government that the (deal) cannot be changed,” he said.

Now that’s an excellent observation I failed to make. Wonderful, more reason to celebrate. Sigh! But hey, in the big picture, something is better than nothing and like I said, this deal is the lesser of 2 evils.

Oh and did I mention Jan Pronk and I exchanged emails previously? Ah, I love the privileges blogging provides. I like the guy (no, not because we exchanged emails). He’s a straight-talking diplomat. Too bad he got kicked out of Sudan.

Comments

One Response to “Jan Pronk: UN Gave in to Khartoum on Darfur Resolution”

  1. Nomad on August 17th, 2007 8:09 pm

    Bernard Kouchner said there was money to be found to pay the UN soldiers, so who is going to go to the bank ?

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