UNITED NATIONS, May 19 (UPI) -- The United Nations wants those who have not yet signed the Darfur Peace Agreement to do so immediately and to not interfere in its implementation, and calls for a joint assessment team with the African Union to visit Sudan's embattled western region.
The objective: to determine the needs for transforming the slim AU Mission in Sudan into a robust U.N. operation.
The 15-member U.N. Security Council Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution calling on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to deploy the assessment team within one week and to report back to the council on recommendations within one week of the team's return.
The resolution called on all parties to the agreement signed May 5 in Abuja, Nigeria, by the Sudanese government and the largest rebel force in the region, to "work with the African Union, the United Nations, regional and international organizations and (U.N.) member states to accelerate the transition to a U.N. operation."
It was adopted under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which allows for enforcement measures. The resolution expressed the council's intention to consider a travel ban and assets freeze against any individual or group that violates or blocks implementation of the agreement, which aims to end fighting in a region that has seen the deaths of more than 200,000 people and the displacement of 2 million more in just over three years.
Under the resolution, Annan would submit recommendations after the assessment team's return on all relevant issues, including force requirements and cost estimates for a U.N. operation.
The secretary-general has strongly backed the AU's call for a transition from AMIS to a U.N. force. While urging support for the African mission, he told the council earlier this month, "As soon as possible AMIS must be transformed into a larger and more mobile U.N. operation, better-equipped and with a stronger mandate."
Annan's special representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, returned Tuesday to Khartoum from Addis Ababa, where he took part in a meeting of the AU's Peace and Security Council on Sudan. He told the panel while the Darfur Peace Agreement was a major achievement, implementing it and improving the situation on the ground for the people of the region may prove to be even harder.
Pronk goes to Darfur Wednesday to continue his efforts to widen the circle of support for the pact, according to the U.N. Mission in Sudan, deployed to monitor a peace agreement that ended over two decades of fighting in the south of Sudan.
During his three-day visit, Pronk was to meet with AMIS commanders, the Wali, or governor of West Darfur, and local representatives of civil society and international non-governmental organizations, a U.N. spokesman said.
Speaking after the vote in the formal council chamber, Ambassador Vitaliy Churkin of Russia and Ambassador Zhang Yishan of China said invoking Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter in the resolution should not be construed as constituting a premise for the council's future discussions or adoption of its future resolutions on Sudan.
They said deploying a U.N. peacekeeping operation in Darfur would require the agreement and cooperation of the Sudanese government.
Ambassador Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar said the resolution did not mean the council was prepared to carry out the transfer without approval of the Sudanese government.
Outside the council, Ambassador John Bolton of the United States told reporters Washington was "very pleased" the measure first introduced in substance one week ago by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had passed unanimously.
"We think that this sends a strong message under Chapter VII of the Security Council's intention to move expeditiously to replace the AU force in the Darfur region with a U.N. peacekeeping operation and to increase its assistance to the AMIS force in the interim period," he said.
"As you know some delegations, Russia and China in particular, were concerned about invoking Chapter VII," he continued. "I think the lesson here is the United States and others felt Chapter VII was necessary and by persisting we persuaded Russia and China to go along and thus lead us to a unanimous decision.
While the measure did not give the green light for NATO to contribute troops to helping out in Darfur, it did approve the assistance of "regional and international organizations."
Said Bolton: "Regional organization means NATO. There isn't the slightest doubt in anybody's mind what it means and I think that all you veterans of U.N drafting know there are different ways of getting to the same result."
