Annan lays out plan for enormous Sudan peacekeeping mission

The Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed sending a 10,130-strong force to monitor a peace deal ending Sudan's civil war, and warned of the "hugely complex task" that would await the mission, according to a report released Thursday.

In his report to the U.N. Security Council, Annan laid out his vision for a mission that would be one of the most complex the United Nations has ever faced. The size of western Europe, Sudan is shattered from a 21-year-civil war in the south and a separate conflict and full-blown humanitarian crisis in the western Darfur region.

The deployment, which must be approved by the Security Council, would help monitor a Jan. 9 peace deal in the south as well as provide humanitarian assistance to the millions of people displaced by that war, help demobilize child soldiers and tackle the problem of Sudan's huge and largely unmarked mine fields.

It would even raise awareness of HIV and AIDS and protect women's rights.

"Harmonizing all aspects of the comprehensive peace agreement will be a hugely complex task," Annan said in the report. "The stakes and tasks are enormous for both the Sudanese people and the parties."

Alongside the obstacles inherent in enforcing the peace deal, there are far more basic problems: decrepit roads, unexploded ordnance, a broken railway system, and continued conflict in the northeast and the western Darfur region.

The mission would also deploy some military observers to Darfur, and U.N. staff would work closely with African Union officials running their own mission in the region, where conflict between government-backed Janjaweed militia and rebels has killed tens of thousands and displaced some 2 million more.

The report, dated Jan. 31 but released Thursday, comes just after a U.N.-appointed commission released the results of an investigation of the Darfur crisis. It found evidence of crimes against humanity and war crimes, but stopped short of labeling the crisis genocide.

The Security Council was to discuss the report on Friday and is expected to approve the peacekeeping deployment in a resolution, possibly sometime next week.

Council members, however, haven't decided if they should try to respond to the Darfur report -- possibly with sanctions, an arms or oil embargo, or referrals to a war crimes tribunal -- when raising the issue of the peacekeeping deployment.

The peacekeepers would be deployed under Chapter 6 of the U.N. Charter, meaning they can use force to protect people who are directly threatened with violence. That gives them less power to use force than if they were deployed to help restore order.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a resolution that would have Russian troops join the U.N. peacekeeping operation. The resolution calls for Russia to send units from the Interior Ministry, which has both police and military forces.

The fighting in Darfur has persisted in spite of a cease-fire agreement, and attacks and vendetta killings are commonplace.

On Thursday, a United Nations report issued in Khartoum said Sudan Liberation Army rebels had killed the nephew of a reputed leader of the Janjaweed, the militia accused of the bulk of the atrocities in Darfur. The statement said rebels ambushed Omar Hilal, the nephew of Musa Hilal, and a friend on Sunday, killing both of them. No further details were given.

In other fighting, the report cited ambushes and attacks by both sides killing at least nine people since Monday.