Darfur: UN OKs 26,000 Peacekeepers

From the AP

The U.N. Security Council approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur on Tuesday to try to help end four years of fighting that has killed more than 200,000 people in the conflict-wracked Sudanese region.

The force—the first joint peacekeeping mission by the African Union and the United Nations—will replace the beleaguered 7,000-strong AU force now on the ground in Darfur no later than Dec. 31. The council urged that the AU-U.N. "hybrid" force achieve "full operational capability and force strength as soon as possible thereafter."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it a "historic and unprecedented resolution" that will send "a clear and powerful signal" of the U.N.'s commitment to help to the people of Darfur and the surrounding region "and close this tragic chapter in Sudan's history."

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry called it "an unprecedented undertaking in scale, complexity and importance."

The conflict in Darfur began in February 2003 when ethnic African tribes rebelled against what they consider decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government. Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed—a charge it denies.

The poorly equipped and underfunded African Union force has been unable to stop the fighting, and neither has the Darfur Peace Agreement, signed a year ago by the government and one rebel group. Other rebel factions called the deal insufficient, and fighting has continued.

The U.N. and Western governments have pressed Sudan since November to accept a U.N. plan for a joint force. After stalling for months, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed in April to a "heavy support package" to strengthen the AU force, including 3,000 U.N. troops, police and civilian personnel along with aircraft and other equipment.

The resolution lays the groundwork for the deployment of the much larger 26,000-strong hybrid force, which will be called UNAMID. The force will have up to 19,555 military personnel, including 360 military observers and liaison officers, a civilian component including up to 3,772 international police, and 19 special police units with up to 2,660 officers.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, reacted harshly to earlier versions of the resolution, calling one circulated last week "ugly" and "awful." Britain and France, the key sponsors of the resolution, stripped harsh language in an attempt to win approval.

The final draft has one section under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which deals with threats to peace and security and can be militarily enforced.

It authorizes UNAMID to take "the necessary action" to protect and ensure freedom of movement for its own personnel and humanitarian workers.

It also authorizes the hybrid force to take action to "support early and effective implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement, and prevent the disruption of its implementation and armed attacks, and thus to protect civilians, without prejudice to the responsibility of the government of Sudan."

But the final resolution dropped Chapter 7 authorization to monitor the presence of arms in Darfur in violation of U.N. resolutions and the peace agreement, which Sudan strongly objected to.

Darfur: Violence Cuts Aid to 500,000

From Reuters

Attacks and banditry has left some 500,000 needy Darfuris out of reach of the world's largest aid operation in Sudan's remote west, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.

More than 12,000 humanitarian staff in Darfur assist 4.2 million people whose lives have been disrupted by four years of revolt. International experts estimate 200,000 have died in the fighting and from famine and disease.

"We are under attack every day: We have areas where we can't go to, we have hijacks every day, we have aid workers attacked every day," Mike McDonagh, north Sudan manager for the U.N. Office for the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said.

"In May 2006, the humanitarian community had access to almost everybody. Now we do not have access to about half a million people," McDonagh told Reuters.

In the past, aid workers blamed government restrictions for lack of access to the needy in Darfur, but according to McDonagh, banditry and lawlessness are now primarily to blame.

"There is a lot of banditry. Some of these people may be former rebels or may be former pro-government militia," he said, adding there was at least a serious incident every day.

Earlier, however, the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters in Geneva it had had better access to the region over the past three or four months although general lawlessness still threatened civilians.

Affected communities have seen "a high level of criminality and banditry", Yasmine Dessimoz, the outgoing head of ICRC Darfur operations, said.

McDonagh said bandits had hijacked 80 vehicles belonging to the humanitarian community since the beginning of the year.

"Very many humanitarian staff were held at gun point which is a shocking thing for many people and, in many cases, they were detained for hours and sometimes overnight and very often they were dumped in the desert," he said.

These incidents and others, said McDonagh, means humanitarian officials now have only limited access to large areas and no access to certain areas.

"We are starting to see the effect of the lack of access. There is an increase in malnutrition. There are also more diseases that prey on children," he said.

Darfur: U.N. Poised to Approve New Force

From Reuters

The U.N. Security Council was set to authorize up to 26,000 troops and police for Sudan's Darfur region on Tuesday in an effort to quell violence in the vast arid region.

Britain and France, sponsors of the resolution, formally introduced their draft resolution late on Monday to the 15 council members, stripping the text of harsh language. A vote was expected Tuesday afternoon on a combined or "hybrid" United Nations-African Union force.

Visiting Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in a speech on development, warned Khartoum and rebels that if killings continued, "I and others will redouble out efforts to impose further sanctions."

"The message for Darfur is that it is time for change," Brown told U.N. diplomats. The threat of sanctions, however, has been deleted from the resolution's text.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died over the last four years.

Parts of the resolution are under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory. This includes taking "necessary action," a euphemism for the use of force, in self-defense of UN-AU personnel, to ensure freedom of movement of humanitarian workers as well as to protect civilians "under threat of violence without prejudice to the government's responsibilities."

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, who had qualms about the use of force in Chapter 7, said now this provision was needed but "we have to be precise and very careful where it is applied." He said Beijing generally approved the new text.

Deleted from earlier texts was the right to "seizure and disposal" of illegal arms in violation of earlier agreements. Now the new force is to "monitor" such weapons.

Specifically, the text would authorize no more than 19,555 military personnel and 6,432 civilian police.

The resolution calls on member states to finalize their contributions to the new force, called UNAMID or the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, within 90 days. UNAMID would incorporate the under-equipped and under-financed 7,000 Africa Union troops now in Darfur.

Sudan, after months of hesitation, has agreed to the troop numbers but U.N. officials expect it will take a year to get the force in place. Khartoum also has to agree to allow units from individual countries into Sudan.

Infantry soldiers will be drawn mainly from African nations unless not enough Africans can be recruited. Personnel from elsewhere in the world are expected to be used for specialized engineering and in command headquarters. The United States is restricting its contribution to transporting troops to Darfur and helping to pay for the operation.

The new headquarters should be running by October 31, so U.N. members could cover costs for the African Union, as the United States had proposed.

The timetable is then staggered so the combined force will be in charge of all operations by December 31.

The new text also eliminates a specific reference to the Janjaweed, a brutal pro-Khartoum militia, blamed for rape, murder and burning villages.

The draft resolution asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report to the council every 30 days on implementation of the resolution and progress on a political settlement. The United Nations and the AU are attempting to organize a peace conference among a myriad of rebel groups and the government.

Darfur: UN Resolution Nears Vote

From Reuters

The U.N. Security Council reached broad agreement on a draft resolution to authorize up to 26,000 troops and police for Sudan's Darfur region, with a vote anticipated this week.

Britain and France distributed a fourth revised text late on Monday to be sent to governments of the 15 council members. A vote could be held as early as Tuesday or Wednesday on a combined or "hybrid" United Nations-African Union force, diplomats said.

In remarks prepared for a Tuesday morning speech at the United Nations, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he hoped the resolution would be adopted later in the day.

"We will work hard to deploy this force quickly ... but we must be clear: if any party blocks progress and the killings continue, I and others will redouble our efforts to impose further sanctions," Brown said.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died over the last four years.

Parts of the resolution are under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory. This includes taking "necessary action," a euphemism for the use of force, in self-defense of UN-AU personnel, to ensure freedom of movement of humanitarian workers as well as to protect civilians "under threat of violence without prejudice to the government's responsibilities."

China's U.N. ambassador, Wang Guangya, who had qualms about the use of force in Chapter 7, said now this provision was needed but "we have to be precise and very careful where it is applied." He said Beijing generally approved the new text.

Sponsors of the draft, Britain and France, spoke to Sudanese diplomats about the draft to get agreement from Khartoum. Deleted from earlier texts was the right to "seizure and disposal" of illegal arms in violation of earlier agreements. Now the new force is to "monitor" such weapons.

Specifically, the text would authorize no more than 19,555 military personnel and 6,432 civilian police.

The resolution calls on member states to finalize their contributions to the new force, called UNAMID or the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, within 90 days. UNAMID would incorporate the under-equipped and under-financed 7,000 Africa Union troops now in Darfur.

Sudan, after months of hesitation, has agreed to the troop numbers but U.N. officials expect it will take a year to get the force in place. Khartoum also has to agree to allow individual units into the country.

Infantry soldiers will be drawn mainly from African nations unless not enough Africans can be recruited. Personnel from elsewhere in the world are expected to be used for specialized engineering and in command headquarters. The United States is restricting its contribution to transporting troops to Darfur and helping to pay for the operation.

The initial operational capability for the new headquarters is now Oct. 31, so that U.N. members could cover costs for the African Union, as the United States had proposed.

The timetable is then staggered so that the combined force, will be in charge of all operations by Dec. 31.

The new text also eliminates a specific reference to the Janjaweed, a brutal pro-Khartoum militia, blamed for rape, murder and burning villages.

The draft resolution asks Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report to the council every 30 days on implementation of the resolution and progress on a political settlement. The United Nations and the AU are attempting to organize a peace conference among a myriad of rebel groups and the government.

From the AP

Britain and France have stripped more harsh language from a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would authorize a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur in an attempt to win passage for the proposal this week.

The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press on Monday, is the third revision of the proposal by the co-sponsors this month.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Security Council members were working to finalize the document so it could be brought to a vote in the next couple of days.

"We are very close and our expectation is to finalize the resolution in the next 24 hours," he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

The draft calls for the deployment of a joint U.N.-African Union force to try to stop the fighting between ethnic African rebels and pro-government janjaweed militia in the Sudanese region. The violence has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million since 2003.

The "hybrid" force would replace the poorly equipped AU force of 7,000 now in Darfur.

Sudan's U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, reacted harshly to a version of the draft that circulated at U.N. headquarters last week, calling it "ugly" and "awful."

On Monday, however, Abdalhaleem declined to comment on the latest revised proposal, which was circulated to Security Council members over the weekend. "The consultations are at a sensitive stage," he said.

The latest draft removes a specific mention of ongoing attacks by government forces and janjaweed militiamen against civilians and humanitarian workers in Darfur and drops a strongly worded condemnation of "continued violations" of the Darfur Peace Agreement.

It also scales back the peacekeeping force's mandate slightly, removing a section permitting the troops to "take all necessary action" to monitor arms violations in the desert region under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Chapter 7 deals with threats to peace and security and can be enforced through measures ranging from breaking diplomatic and trade relations to military intervention.

The resolution still allows the force to take action under Chapter 7 to protect its personnel, humanitarian workers and civilians from attacks _ a core element that Khalilzad said last week the co-sponsors were not willing to compromise on.

The conflict in Darfur began in February 2003 when ethnic African tribes rebelled against what they consider decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government. In May 2006, the government signed the Darfur Peace Agreement with one of the rebel groups, but the U.N. and international observers say violence has continued.

The U.N. and Western governments have pressed Sudan since November to accept a U.N. plan for a joint force. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir agreed in April to a "heavy support package" to strengthen the AU force, including 3,000 U.N. troops, police and civilian personnel along with aircraft and other equipment.

The new draft lays the groundwork for the deployment of the much larger 26,000-strong hybrid force, which will be called UNAMID.

The force will have up to 19,555 military personnel, including 360 military observers and liaison officers, a civilian component including up to 3,772 international police, and 19 special police units with up to 2,660 officers.

The draft calls on UNAMID to start taking over command of the joint U.N.-AU forces in Darfur by October, with complete control to be shifted by December.

China, which imports two-thirds of Sudan's oil and has opposed sanctions against the country in the past, praised the revised proposal Monday. It is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council that can veto resolutions.

"There have been a lot of improvements on the original draft," Chinese U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said. "We all want to work on this resolution to make it a good resolution."

Darfur: Dozens Killed in Clash

From AFP

At least 34 people have been killed in latest clashes between rival Arab tribes in the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur, a tribal chief said on today.

"These clashes, coming just after the ones from last week, killed 34 and wounded 38 of our people," Mohammed Hammad Jalabi, chief of the Torjum tribe, told AFP by telephone from the provincial capital of Nyala.

He said that the rival Rzigat Aballa tribe, with which the Torjam have been clashing for months, attacked his tribal lands west of Nyala from four directions and fighting lasted much of the day before the army intervened.

There were no estimates to the number of Aballa dead.

On July 25, Sudanese papers reported that another 16 people died in clashes between the two tribes when Aballa men fell on a band of Torjum, killing nine.

The tribes, at odds over grazing rights and livestock raiding, have violated a February truce seven times, most dramatically in April when Rzigat tribesmen killed 62 Torjam in their villages.

Darfur: Activists Ask Bashir to Release Suleiman Jamous

From Reuters

Eleven prominent international activists have sent an open letter to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir requesting the release of Darfur rebel Suleiman Jamous, who some see as critical to Darfur peace efforts.

Jamous, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) humanitarian coordinator, has been virtually imprisoned for 13 months and is in urgent need of medical attention.

Jamous was the main liaison between the world's largest aid operation in Darfur and rebels, keeping looting of aid convoys down and humanitarian workers safe.

Khartoum has called Jamous a "terrorist" and said he should be arrested.

Last year the United Nations removed the elderly Jamous from Darfur to a U.N. hospital in neighbouring South Kordofan, without informing the government. Jamous needs a stomach biopsy which he cannot be performed in South Kordofan.

The letter to Bashir requesting his freedom be guaranteed without fear of arrest was dated July 30.

Among the 11 signatories were South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, International Centre for Transitional Justice President Juan Mendez, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams.

"In our different capacities, we have come to know and respect Suleiman for his humanitarian work in Darfur and his commitment to the well-being of the people of Sudan," the letter said.

"He exemplified the best tradition of civic activism in Sudan including personal piety and self-sacrifice in the cause of providing essential assistance to those in need."

Banditry and attacks have forced some aid agencies to leave parts of Darfur and others to reduce their operations.

A senior SLA Darfur rebel commander, Abdallah Yehia, has listed Jamous as a member of his delegation to attend a meeting in Tanzania this week organised by the United Nations and the African Union to prepare for peace talks with the Sudanese government.

Only one of three rebel negotiating groups signed a peace deal in Nigeria last year. Since the deal the non-signatories have split into more than a dozen factions.

"Suleiman Jamous is critical to the success of these talks and to rebel unity," U.S.-based Sudan expert and activist Eric Reeves told Reuters last week.

U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his AU counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim hope to at least get a unified position from the fractured rebels in a Aug. 3-5 meeting in Arusha, Tanzania.

Darfur: US Lawmakers to Step Up Economic Pressure on Sudan

From VOA

The House of Representatives is poised to approve legislation aimed at stepping up economic pressure on the government of Sudan because of the situation in Darfur. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill that the vote is expected Tuesday.

House lawmakers designed the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act to support the widening grassroots movement in the United States for states, cities and universities and mutual and pension funds to divest from or restrict investments in companies doing business in Sudan.

California Democrat Barbara Lee is the bill's main sponsor and notes that, so far, 19 U.S. states, nine cities, and 54 universities have approved divestment measures.

"Throughout our country, our constituents are standing up and demanding that their hard-earned money not be used to support a pariah government that is killing its own people," she said.

Under the legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission would compile a list of companies lon the New York Stock Exchange with ties to Khartoum, prohibit them from receiving federal contracts, and make it legal to divest from such companies, removing the threat of lawsuits in the case of pension and other fund managers.

House financial services committee chairman Congressman Barney Frank says the Darfur measure, and a similar one for Iran, does not compel divestment.

"What these bills do is to make it clear, as I think they will once they become law, that the opposition to the genocide in Sudan, to the nuclearization, the weapons nuclearization in Iran, are widespread throughout this country," he said.

Among provisions, companies involved in Sudan would disclose the nature of their operations. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), an arm of Congress, would investigate any Sudan investments by the Thrift Investment Board, which oversees the federal employee retirement fund.

Companies would have to disclose activities with Sudan government or government-controlled entities, investments in military equipment sales or oil-related activities.

Geographic exceptions are made for southern Sudan, providing humanitarian relief for people in Darfur, implementing the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement, and providing military and other equipment for African Union peacekeepers or the United Nations and non-government organizations.

Republicans usually skeptical about the effectiveness of sanctions supported the measure.

"Closing our financial markets to those who particularly directly or indirectly engage in the slaughter of innocent human beings is well within our ability and ought to be the bedrock of our principles," said Congressman Scott Garrett.

Congressman Frank Wolf has been the most outspoken House Republican on Darfur.

"Many states have been reluctant, they have looked for excuses," he said. "Now, this legislation takes away all the excuses."

Republicans insisted on language calling for other governments to adopt similar measures.

The bill gives the U.S. president power to waive provisions on a case by case basis in the interest of U.S. national security.

Bipartisan divestment legislation regarding Darfur is also pending in the Senate, where a measure proposes to identify securities companies with more than one million dollars invested in Sudan's petroleum industry.

So far this year, House lawmakers have also approved other measures urging China, and the Arab League, to use their influence with the Khartoum government to help stop genocide and violence in Darfur, and providing funds to help Darfur refugees living in camps in Chad.

Darfur: U.S. Congressman Calls for China Olympics Boycott Over Weapons

From VOA

Visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that he and President Bush will step up pressure to end violence in Sudan's Darfur province. Brown, who and President Bush wrapped up two days of talks Monday in the United States, said they agreed to expedite the UN resolution for a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur.

Congressman Donald Payne is chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health. He told VOA he hopes the new breed of European leaders would force the United States to do more about Darfur.

“I hope that the new prime minister of Great Britain and the new president in France have both taken a very strong interest, and this is a good sign, if we could get the Europeans more engaged to put pressure on and push our government. The members of Congress want to go further, but we’ve seen the administration sort of slow down once again because Sudan is supposed to be assisting us against al-Qaeda, they claim,” he said.

Congressman Payne said the United States was once again looking the other way while thousands continue to die in Darfur.

“Once again, we are looking the other way as people die because one issue is supposed to be paramount to this so-called war on terror. We cannot compromise all the principles for people we consider to be our allies because they say they support the war on terror,” Payne said

Congressman Payne called for a boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics if China does not stop selling what he called illegal arms to Sudan.

“We must keep the pressure on China. I’d like to even see, if they continue to sell illegal arms to the government, that we should have a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing in ’08. It would be the blood Olympics, and we can’t let them have it both ways,” Payne said.

Darfur: Child Malnutrition Above Emergency Levels

From Reuters

Malnutrition rates for young children have risen above emergency levels in West Darfur's capital el-Geneina and the surrounding camps, a preliminary survey by Irish aid agency Concern said.

The emergency threshold for Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) is 15 percent but the Concern survey in the el-Geneina area of western Sudan found the rate among children under 5-years old to be more than two percentage points above that.

Concern Country Director Janu Rao told Reuters on Tuesday immediate action was needed to prevent a worsening of the Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM).

"The results reveal an increase in moderate malnutrition amongst the under-5 population with a GAM of 17.4 percent and SAM of 1.4 percent," the preliminary report said.

In 2006, 12.3 percent of children under 5 were moderately malnourished, it added.

"This result is alarming as this survey comes at the start of the traditional 'hunger gap', with harvests not due until October/November," the report said.

About 94,000 Darfuris live in camps surrounding el-Geneina town. They fled the rape, pillage and murder that began when Sudan's government countered a rebel uprising in early 2003.

While 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes to miserable camps, the world's largest aid operation helps some 4.2 million overall, including those who remained in remote villages but are cut off from normal life and their livelihoods.

Almost 13,000 humanitarian workers providing relief in difficult and dangerous conditions have brought the crisis under control and below emergency levels.

Rao, whose aid agency Concern has worked in Darfur since 2002, said the rise in the malnutrition rate is due in part to a World Food Programme policy focusing food aid on camp residents, while people in towns who cannot afford to buy supplies at the market go without.

"It's very hard to determine who is a host and who is an IDP (internally displaced person)," Rao told Reuters. "Geneina is a big town."

He also blamed increasingly dirty drinking water which has caused diarrhoea for the rise in malnutrition.

Experts estimate 200,000 have died of violence and disease in Darfur since the conflict began. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000 and almost daily state-owned media is reporting that 30 or even 40 percent of Darfuris in camps are going back home.

The government has said refugee numbers in Darfur are inflated because people are attracted to free aid in the camps.

Darfur: UK and France Modify U.N. Resolution

From Reuters

Britain and France have modified a U.N. resolution authorizing up to 26,000 troops and police in Darfur by narrowing the scope of where force can be used and dropping some language offensive to Sudan.

The draft, the third one this month, obtained by Reuters on Monday and distributed to U.N. Security Council members over the weekend, is expected to be adopted this week, but further changes are possible.

"We are very close and our expectation is to finalize the text in the next 24 hours," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said after council consultations. But he said some discussions were still needed before a vote could be called.

Estimated to cost more than $2 billion (988.2 million pounds) in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died.

The draft leaves intact a tough mandate, Sudan's biggest complaint, that would allow the use of force to ensure the security and movement of the mission's personnel and humanitarian workers and "to protect civilians under threat of physical violence."

Parts of the resolution are under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes it mandatory. It would allow the mission "to use necessary means," a euphemism for a use of force, "as it deems within its capabilities." The previous draft had called for "all necessary means," but the meaning remains the same, diplomats said.

Deleted from the Chapter 7 section and put elsewhere in the text is the monitoring of arms in Sudan in violation of the peace agreement, which indicates force cannot be used.

China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya, whose country has oil investments in Sudan, said that "under certain circumstances Chapter 7 is needed" but "we have to be precise and very careful where it is applied." He said there were improvements in the draft but others were still necessary.

Unlike earlier comments from Sudan, Wang, however, did not call for the elimination of Chapter 7 in the text.

The new draft text also sets a series of target dates for a transfer of authority from the African Union to a combined AU-UN force that would operate in Sudan's Darfur region, although full deployment is expected to take a year.

Most of the infantry troops are expected to be from Africa, absorbing the 7,000 AU contingent now in Darfur.

The initial operational capability for the new headquarters is now October 31, so that U.N. members could cover costs for the African Union, as the United States had proposed.

The timetable is then staggered so that the combined force, called UNAMID, the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, will be in charge of all operations by December 31.

The new text also deletes the word "condemns," such as in continued violations of peace accords. It eliminates a specific reference to the Janjaweed, a brutal pro-Khartoum militia, blamed for rape, murder and burning villages.

An earlier text deleted a provision on a threat of "further measures," a code word for sanctions, against rebels or the government if they obstruct a peace process.

Specifically, the text would authorize up to 19,555 military personnel and 6,400 civilian police. It calls on member states to "finalize" their contributions within 90 days of adoption. Sudan has agreed to the troop numbers.

Darfur: Sudan Sought Al-Qaeda’s Help to Fight Peacekeepers

From the Sudan Tribune

The Sudanese government decided to lift restrictions on Al-Qaeda members in the country in return for their help in fighting peacekeepers in Darfur.

The classified document sent to Sudan Tribune by a group named Kosh Liberation Movement (KLM) was dated April 27, 2004 and signed by senior members of Sudan’s presidency, ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the army.

One of the signatories was Sudan’s presidential adviser Majzoub al-Khalifa who was killed in a car accident last month signing on behalf of the NCP.

The authenticity of the document could not be independently verified.

Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan for several years in the early 1990s.

The document requests all government agencies to allow “foreign Jihadis who came to Sudan with Osama Bin Laden in 1994 to resume their political activities in Sudan given the circumstances surrounding foreign intervention in Darfur to support armed forces and the people of Sudan to fight Zionist enemies”.

The decision outlines certain steps to be taken to allow Al-Qaeda to operate in Sudan such as unfreezing their bank accounts and returning all properties confiscated in 1996.

A copy of the order was sent to President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, Head of Security Services and a representative of Al-Qaeda in Sudan.

Last year Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims in a video released on Friday to launch a holy war against proposed U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region.

The Los Angeles Times revealed last month that Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq, an example of how the U.S. has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its suspected role in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur.

The U.S.-Sudan relationship goes beyond Iraq. Sudan has helped the United States track the turmoil in Somalia. Sudanese intelligence service has helped the US to attack the Islamic Courts positions in Somalia and to locate Al Qaeda suspects hiding there.

Darfur: Rebel Group JEM Splits Again

From Reuters

Darfur's rebel Justice and Equality Movement has split again, a spokesman said on Monday, ahead of a United Nations and African Union meeting to unite the insurgents before peace talks with the Sudanese government.

Nourein Adam Abdel Gaffa, spokesman for JEM's armed wing, said the group was removing Khalil Ibrahim from his leadership position and wanted members of JEM's army to represent the group at the rebel meeting in Tanzania beginning on Aug. 3.

"We are announcing the removal of Khalil Ibrahim as the leader of the movement," he said.

Abdel Gaffa said Ibrahim had breached the laws governing JEM but did not offer details.

However, Abdel Gaffa is allied with JEM chief of staff Abdallah Abanda Abakr who Ibrahim removed from his position earlier this month, a move Abakr and other commanders rejected.

JEM spokesman Ahmed Adam told Reuters from London that Ibrahim had not been removed and would represent JEM in the Arusha talks in August.

"This is not true. Still Khalil is the chairman of JEM," he said, adding that JEM was trying to resolve any outstanding problems, including confusion over Abakr's role.

The split announced by JEM's armed wing is a blow to the Aug. 3-5 Arusha meeting ahead of peace talks planned by U.N. Darfur envoy Jan Eliasson and his AU counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim.

One of the biggest obstacles to restarting Darfur peace talks to end the fighting is rebel divisions.

Since a peace deal last year signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions, the non-signatory factions split into more than a dozen groups.

JEM, which along with the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), was involved in the 2006 Nigeria talks that produced the peace agreement, is often considered a smaller rebel group.

Sudan expert Eric Reeves said, although JEM had few troops on the ground, they could act as a spoiler to any peace agreement if not represented at the talks.

Abdel Gaffa said on Monday his group was "not committed to any ceasefire agreement".

U.S. envoy Andrew Natsios told reporters in New York that Salim and Eliasson hoped to begin Darfur peace talks in September, although the envoys themselves have been careful not to set a start date.

"By the end of August Jan Eliasson said, and Salim Salim, that they will issue invitations to a formal conference that they expect will begin in September," Natsios said.

He added that broader society in Darfur needed to be included in the talks process to ensure whatever is agreed receives support on the ground.

Last year's unpopular peace deal is rejected by the 2.5 million Darfuris who fled their homes to camps in Darfur and in neighbouring Chad. The African Union, which mediated the deal, was criticised for not publicising it quickly enough.

Darfur: SPLM Secretary General Accuses Khartoum of Genocide

From the Sudan Tribune

A senior official with Sudan’s former southern rebels has accused Khartoum of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the troubled region of Darfur, local press reported on Saturday.

Pagan Amun of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which joined a national unity government after a 2005 peace deal, was speaking on the second anniversary of the death of SPLM leader John Garang, who died in a helicopter crash in Uganda two years ago.

"The government has committed crimes of genocide, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement and armed tribes against each other in Darfur," Amun said in comments reported in several papers, including the Al-Sahafa independent daily.

His remarks come a day after the UN’s Human Rights Committee (HRC) officially condemned "ethnic cleansing" in Darfur and sharply rebuked Sudan’s government for failing to prosecute militias involved in the killings.

In a report, it said that "widespread and systematic serious human rights violations, including murder, rape, forced displacement and attacks against the civil population, have been and continue to be committed with total impunity throughout Sudan and particularly in Darfur."

Darfur: Brown to Lead Fight

From The Mirror

Gordon Brown will today urge George Bush to back a UN resolution to move troops into Sudan's war-torn Darfur.

He hopes his initiative, to be set out at a White House meeting, will help stop the slaughter which has left up to 250,000 dead, two million homeless and four million on food aid.

Mr Brown also hopes that in the wake of the Iraq fiasco it will show how the US-UK relationship can be a force for international good.

Under the UN plan a 19,000-strong force of African and troops from other UN countries will try to stop Arab Janjaweed militia launching brutal raids on the people of Darfur.

A separate EU force will go to neighbouring Chad to stop the conflict spilling over.

The resolution will also authorize sanctions against Sudan, believed to be sponsoring the conflict. But the UN will offer vital cash aid if Sudan plays ball. Few troops are likely to come from Britain because of commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the UK could supply back-up.

Mr Brown arrived in the US yesterday and promptly travelled to the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, where Mr Bush treated him to a ride in a golf buggy.

But as the two men smiled together there was speculation over Britain's future dealings with the US.

Mr Brown is expected to hit Mr Bush with uncomfortable truths. Americans are braced to hear Britain will pull its 5,000 troops out of Iraq by Christmas.

There are White House fears that the friendship will cool.

But Mr Brown insisted: "It is in the British interest to have a strong relationship with the US."

CAR: Caught in Deadly Crossfire

From BBC

In the village of Nanabaria not a single house has been spared. Seven hundred people lived here until October last year.

That was before their mud and brick homes were burnt to the ground, when members of the elite Presidential Guard arrived one morning with guns and mortars.

The soldiers were on a mission to hunt down rebels from the APRD, the insurgents in the north-west who have laid siege to the main town of Paoua at least twice in the past 18 months.

The military claimed civilians in Nanabaria were giving the rebels refuge. Many villagers deny this.

"My house was the first to be burnt down," explained Janvier Zolo, a minister at the village church, which is now little more than a charred shell.

He says only a quarter of the population in this part of the country voted for President Francois Bozize in the 2005 elections, but insists: "It doesn't mean we are rebels - we respect the choice of President Bozize."

Since the attack, human rights organisations have slated the military for using excessive force and perpetuating human rights violations in a country where acts of violence have gone largely unreported.

An estimated 212,000 people have been displaced by fighting in a country that has seen four coups in the past decade.

A further 70,000 have crossed the border to seek refuge in neighbouring Chad and Cameroon.

The same size as France but with a population of just four million, CAR is in many ways still a French colony. It also increasingly finds itself entangled in the troubles in neighbouring Chad and Sudan.

The French supported President Bozize when he seized power in 2003 and then again when he was elected leader two years later.

"Nothing happens here without the approval of Paris," claimed one individual who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

The recent intervention of French troops to quell insurgent attacks on Birao, near the Sudanese border, appears to bear this out.

Uganda: Rebels Want $2m For Talks

From BBC

Uganda's rebels are demanding $2m from donors, or they say they will not return to peace talks in South Sudan.

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) technical adviser David Nyekorach told the BBC the money was needed for consultations with its various groups.

Talks between the Ugandan government and the LRA rebels were expected to resume this week.

Some 2m people have fled their homes and thousands of children have been abducted during the 20-year conflict

In January, the LRA refused to resume talks after Sudan's president accused them of committing atrocities in South Sudan and threatened to evict them.

They however returned following a meeting between UN peace envoy Joachim Chissano and LRA leader Joseph Kony.

Mr Nyekorach said their technical team has been unable to travel to the affected areas to solicit the views of its people due to lack of funding.

"The talks are on course but we cannot return to the table without suggestions from the people, so this money is important," Mr Nyekorach told the BBC.

He said donors had failed to pay the money they had promised.

Uganda's government has also indicated that it is not ready to resume talks aimed at achieving peace in the north of the country.

Mr Nyekorach said they hope that the funding would be released to enable the peace talks to resume at the end of August.

LRA leader Joseph Kony and three of his top commanders are wanted for war crimes at the International Criminal Court and have indicated that no deal will be signed while the warrants for their arrest are still in place.

But last month, the two sides agreed to use Ugandan justice to address human rights abuses.

Darfur: Sudan Officially Rejects Revised UN Resolution

From the Sudan Tribune - thanks to Start Loving for the head's up

The Sudanese government officially informed members of the UN Security Council that it rejected any reference to Chapter Seven in a resolution for the Darfur peacekeeping force.

An unidentified Sudanese official speaking to Al-Hayat newspaper published in London said that his government rejects any mandate for the peacekeepers enabling it to use force in the areas they are deployed.

The U.K. and France dropped a threat of sanctions against Sudan in the revised U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution that would authorize an expanded peacekeeping force in Darfur.

The Sudanese government main objection is the mandate allowing the force to “use all necessary means” to protect civilians. Khartoum also rejects any resolution under Chapter VII of the UN charter

Earlier Sudan’s presidential adviser Mustafa Osman Ismail told BBC Arabic service that the revised UN text is a replication of resolution 1706 issued last year and was rejected by Khartoum.

Ismail said that Sudan wants to limit the mandate of the peacekeeping force to protect its own members. He accused US and Britain of attempting to escalate the Darfur issue to cover up for their mistakes in Iraq.

Diplomats told AFP China, Qatar and Indonesia were pushing for softer language on the use of Chapter Seven.

However the African bloc support the inclusion of Chapter Seven to protect their troops should they decide to send forces to Darfur.

Darfur: On the Resolution Currently Before the UN Security Council

The latest from Eric Reeves - Reeves was also the guest on a recent Committee on Conscience podcast that I had forgotten to link to

A chronology of international responses to the Darfur genocide over the past year provides a deeply dispiriting time-line, and suggests how unlikely it is that security for civilians and humanitarians will improve any time soon. Despite current debate in the UN Security Council over a resolution that would authorize, under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, deployment of the so-called UN/African Union “hybrid force,” there are few reasons to believe that Khartoum will actually allow this force to deploy in effective form, or in any remotely appropriate time-frame. The backdrop for current debate continues to be massive human suffering, destruction, displacement, and insecurity on the ground in Darfur (an overview the most recent reports appears below). Despite upticks in international sound and fury, there is too much evidence that they signify nothing.

The critical voice at this juncture, dismayingly, belongs to China---a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, and longtime enabling partner of the Khartoum regime. Last August, in a highly significant and revealing moment, Beijing ordered its UN ambassador to abstain on the crucial vote for UN Security Council Resolution 1706; and even this abstention (as opposed to a veto) was secured from China only by including language in the Resolution that “invited the consent” of Khartoum’s génocidaires for the UN-authorized force. The “invitation” was resolutely refused and no movement was made toward deploying the 22,500 civilian police and troops authorized by Security Council Resolution 1706 under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which confers enforcement authority. The mandate of the force was to have been civilian protection, protection of humanitarian personnel and operations, and to staunch the flow of genocidal violence from Darfur into eastern Chad and Central African Republic, countries now experiencing a tremendous increase in ethnic violence and displacement.

In recent months pressure has mounted on the Chinese government over its relationship with Khartoum, as advocacy efforts have linked ever more forcefully Beijing’s complicity in the Darfur genocide and China’s hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The key question, however, is whether this pressure is now great enough to secure from the Chinese government support for Chapter 7 authority in the current resolution, which is critical to the effectiveness of the deploying “hybrid force” of African Union and UN personnel, some 26,000 troops and civilian police. Again, Chapter 7 would confer enforcement authority, and is essential for both self-protection and the protection of civilians and humanitarians in violence-wracked Darfur. Potential troop- and police-contributing nations will not send their personnel into such an extremely dangerous environment without Chapter 7 authority and robust rules of engagement.

Public support from China on this linchpin issue of force mandate would have been a welcome sign that Beijing is beginning to understand the obligations that come with hosting the Olympics. Conversely, Beijing’s reported efforts to strip Chapter 7 authority from the draft resolution suggest that what we have seen to date is merely an ambitious diplomatic public relations effort around Darfur. China’s ambassador to the UN, Wang Guangya, declared yesterday (July 26, 2007) that even the revised draft of the resolution still presents problems. Agence France-Presse reports from the UN (New York):

“Wang stressed that some members still had problems with the draft, particularly the reference to Chapter 7 of the UN charter, used in cases of threats to international peace and security and to reinforce the mandatory nature of the text. [ ] ‘It is the view of many members that there is no need to bring other unnecessary elements into this resolution which might in a way delay the process, Wang said, stressing the need to keep the focus on authorizing the deployment of a 26,000-strong AU-UN force to be known as UNAMID in strife-torn Darfur. ‘Chapter 7 is a sensitive element in the current draft resolution and we have to be very careful how to handle that particular portion of the text which is under Chapter 7,’ Wang said, taking note of objections raised by Sudan, a close ally and energy supplier of Beijing.” (AFP, July 26, 2007)

More bluntly, Reuters reports from Beijing (July 27, 2007), citing “a Western official familiar with negotiations,” “that China had objected to having Chapter 7 in the resolution.”

But Chapter 7 authority for a Darfur peace support operation is the opposite of what Ambassador Wang suggests is an “unnecessary element”; on the contrary, such authority is of fundamental importance to the viability of the mission. China’s language concerning Chapter 7 authority would seem to be laying the groundwork for an abstention, even a possible veto of the resolution that formalizes a force to which Khartoum nominally gave “unconditional” acceptance on June 17, 2007.

This has become the defining moment for Beijing, particularly given China’s past record at the UN and its harsh words about Chapter 7 authority on the occasion of other Darfur-related resolutions. There is little that does more to explain Khartoum’s obdurate defiance of international efforts in the past, or to explain the recent history of human suffering and destruction in Darfur. China’s refusal to accept Chapter 7 authority for the proposed “hybrid force” to Darfur could mark the demise of any meaningful effort to improve security in the region.

Darfur: AU Shaken by Rebel Threats

From AFP - via POTP

The African Union said Friday it had received unspecified threats from a rebel faction against its peacekeeping mission in Sudan's powderkeg region of Darfur.

The AU said Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement representatives working with the peacekeepers had threatened the mission after a slash of rebel allowances due to cash shortfalls.

It said it "regrets that at a time when efforts are being made to re-energize the political process, elements within the SLA/M are making threats against those charged with maintaining peace in Darfur."

"The AU takes the threat seriously and wishes to stress that it would hold accountable any of the movements for any such action being contemplated now or taken at any time in the future," it said in a statement.

Rebels have killed several AU peacekeepers in Darfur, a western region the size of France that has been a theatre of a conflict that has destabilised the region.

Darfur: Britain, France Demand 'Full Ceasefire'

From AFX

Britain and France today jointly demanded that both the Sudanese government and rebels in Darfur hold a 'full ceasefire' to show their commitment to a political solution.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner reconfirmed their full support for the African Union and United Nations-led political process for Darfur, the troubled western region of Sudan.

'We join other members of the international community in calling on all invited participants to attend the meeting in Arusha (Tanzania) called by the AU and UN special envoys on August 3-5,' the pair said in a communique issued in London and Paris.

'Non-attendance would signal an unwillingness to resolve the suffering in Darfur and would impede the political process.

'Both our governments are working hard in New York to achieve rapid endorsement of the AU-UN hybrid peacekeeping force to ensure its early deployment.

'We appeal to the government of Sudan and rebels to show their commitment to the political process by ceasing all hostilities and committing to a full ceasefire.

'We call on all parties to honour the commitments they made in Tripoli' on July 16, when efforts to end the four-year conlict by paving the way for new talks between Khartoum and fragmented rebel groups took a step forward.

'The UK and France look forward to a sustained and inclusive peace deal that brings lasting benefits to the people of Darfur, and those in surrounding regions, who have suffered for too long,' the statement added.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged at their Paris meeting last week to join forces on Darfur in their attempts to resolve the unrest.

The UN's Human Rights Committee issued a sharp rebuke to Sudan's government today, saying it had failed to prosecute 'militias that engage in ethnic cleansing' in Darfur.

Chad/Darfur: 'No Hopes for Us'

An op-ed by Mia Farrow in the Wall Street Journal

If we hear of eastern Chad at all, it is as a spillover of the genocidal slaughter in Darfur. But this swath of land along Darfur's border has become a full-scale catastrophe in its own right, and it is without the immense and effective humanitarian infrastructure which is sustaining millions of lives in Darfur.

When I first came here in November 2006, I met Abdullah Idris Zaid, who was lying in the tiny Goz Beida hospital. It was a terrible month in eastern Chad. The Janjaweed, Darfur's government-backed Arab militias, joined with Chadian Arab tribes on a rampage of destruction; 60 villages were burned and scores of people were killed, raped, and mutilated. Mr. Zaid's eyes were gouged out by Janjaweed knives.

This month I found him in the Gouroukoum camp for displaced people. He is 27 years old, a husband and a father. His 4-year-old daughter Boushra led him to the mat outside his hut and gently placed a cup of water in his hands. He told me that this is the third place they have sought refuge, and still he does not feel safe.

"They will come again," said Mr. Zaid. "They said, 'we do not want you black people here.' The Janjaweed come from Sudan. If the United Nations does not send troops into Sudan and stop them, then they will return."

Eastern Chad has been plunged into chaos and lawlessness. In border towns, pick-up trucks outfitted with machine guns and loaded with armed, uniformed men careen through the dusty streets. No one knows who they are: the army, Chadian rebels, bandits? It makes little difference to the victims of the escalating violence. For about $5 (U.S.), anyone can get a uniform in the marketplace. As I passed through the town of Abeche, a U.N. refugee agency guard was murdered and two staffers severely wounded. About 100 humanitarian vehicles have been highjacked in the last year; aid workers have been robbed, beaten, abducted and killed.

Eight months ago, 40,000 Chadians had been displaced by Janjaweed attacks. Today the number is 175,000 and rising. People have fled from their burning villages and the fields that sustained them to squalid camps across eastern Chad. "Mortality rates of children under five are double what is accepted as the threshold for an emergency," says Johanne Sekkenes, a Doctors Without Borders program director. "The situation here is massively deteriorating. The needs are huge. Assistance has been too little, and it comes too late."

There have been years of debate as to how the tide of violence engulfing the region can be stemmed. Until recently, the excuse for inaction was the steadfast resistance of the Sudanese government to U.N. peacekeeping presence. Sudan's recent consent to a limited force under African Union command comes in the wake of countless broken promises and falls far short of what is needed. Nonetheless, it leaves the onus squarely on other countries that have the power to contribute troops, but lack the political will to do so.

And so the cacophony of voices continues, deliberating as to whether and how a force should be dispatched, and who should contribute the resources and troops. No one seems to be listening to the most important voice of all -- that of the people of Darfur and eastern Chad, ringing loud and clear from refugee camps across the region.

Oumda al Fatih, is the leader of 20,000 Darfurians at Goz Amir refugee camp. Between the camp and the Darfur border there is nothing but the ashes of destroyed villages. "Twice, Janjaweed from Sudan came here and attacked us," he told me. The refugees had fled these attackers before, but now they were far from home. With no idea where to find water in the unfamiliar desert, they did not even try to run. "We sat on the ground and we held our children and waited for two days. And we were thinking, 'No hopes for us. No hopes for us.'

"We are the ones being killed, tortured and raped. We are the ones who have lost everything. We are refugees with no freedom, no rights, not enough food, no fields; we are living in terror. We accept the U.N. troops. We are asking for help."

This is the voice of the people of Darfur and eastern Chad. It calls urgently for an international force with the resources and mandate necessary to protect defenseless civilians and the aid workers who are struggling to sustain them. These desperate pleas are what we should be hearing and responding to -- urgently.

Darfur: UN Condemns 'Ethnic Cleansing'

From AFP

The UN's Human Rights Committee (HRC) condemned Friday the "militias that engage in ethnic cleansing" in Darfur with impunity from prosecution by Khartoum.

In a report, it said that "widespread and systematic serious human rights violations, including murder, rape, forced displacement and attacks against the civil population, have been and continue to be committed with total impunity throughout Sudan and particularly in Darfur".

The HRC called on the Khartoum government to "ensure that no financial support or materiel is channelled to militias that engage in ethnic cleansing or the deliberate targeting of civilians".

The committee is made up of 18 independent experts and is charged with overseeing implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a key element of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

It is different from the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is made up of representatives of member states.

[edit]

The committee, which interviewed Sudanese representatives, noted the lack of prosecutions by the Sudanese government.

"It is particularly concerned at the immunity provided for in Sudanese law and untransparent procedure for waiving immunity in the event of criminal proceedings against State agents".

"It also notes that the state party has provided few examples of serious crimes that have been prosecuted and punished, whether by criminal courts or courts set up to investigate violations in Darfur".

It said it "remains concerned with respect to the state party’s ability to prosecute and punish war crimes or crimes against humanity committed in Darfur".

Rafael Rivas-Posada, the committee’s president, told reporters co-operation with international investigations was lacking.

"Some topics are alarming: the cases of certain individuals that have been accused before the international tribunals and up to now Sudan has not accepted to comply with that request," he said.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council sought to iron out remaining sticking points in order to reach consensus on a draft resolution authorising a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping in Darfur.

Meanwhile, the African Union has urged Darfur’s disparate rebel factions to attend an upcoming meeting in Tanzania to find a common position and prepare for peace talks with Sudan’s government.

Key mediators and rebel groups are due to meet in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha for three days starting on August 3 to pave the way for widened peace talks with the Sudanese government.

From Reuters

The United Nations Human Rights Committee called on Sudan on Friday to prosecute war crimes committed in Darfur and to ensure that no support is given to militias that engage in "ethnic cleansing".

The body of 18 independent experts voiced concern that Sudan had not carried out any thorough and independent probe into serious human rights violations in the country, especially in the western region of Darfur.

Its conclusions on the records of three countries including Sudan were issued after a three-week meeting in Geneva.

Darfur: Frantic Efforts to Iron Out Differences on UN Resolution

From AFP - via POTP

The UN Security Council sought Thursday to iron out remaining sticking points in order to reach consensus on a draft resolution authorizing joint African Union-UN peacekeeping in Darfur.

China's UN envoy Wang Guangya, the 15-member council chair this month, said input from South Africa, Ghana and Congo had led to an improved draft put forward by France and Britain with US backing Tuesday.

At the urging of the three African council members and to make the text more acceptable to Khartoum, the sponsors of the text dropped an earlier threat of unspecified sanctions against Sudanese parties that fail to fulfill their commitments or cooperate fully with the resolution.

But Wang stressed that some members still had problems with the draft, particularly the reference to Chapter Seven of the UN charter, used in cases of threats to international peace and security and to reinforce the mandatory nature of the text.

Council experts were working frantically to smooth over remaining hurdles and in parallel, the sponsors were also having bilateral discussions with Sudan's UN envoy Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohammad, diplomats said.

"It is the view of many members that there is no need to bring other unnecessary elements into this resolution which might in a way delay the process," Wang said, stressing the need to keep the focus on authorizing the deployment of a 26,000-strong AU-UN force to be known as UNAMID in strife-torn Darfur.

"Chapter Seven is a sensitive element in the current draft resolution and we have to be very careful how to handle that particular portion of the text which is under Chapter Seven," Wang said, taking note of objections raised by Sudan, a close ally and energy supplier of Beijing.

One paragraph of the draft invokes Chapter Seven to state that UNAMID "is authorized to use all necessary means, in the areas of deployment of its forces ... (to) prevent attacks and threats against civilians."

UNAMID would also be able to use force to protect its personnel, ensure security and freedom of movement for humanitarian workers and "monitor whether any arms or related material are present in Darfur" in violation of UN resolutions.

"There's an understanding on the need for Chapter Seven," said an African diplomat on condition of anonymity. "We (African council members) are pushing for it. Our troops are currently in Darfur, our troops have died. We would like a robust mandate for them to protect themselves."

Diplomats said China, Qatar and Indonesia were pushing for softer language on the use of Chapter Seven.

"The idea is to get everybody