U.N., African Union Warn of Darfur Fights

The head of peacekeeping for the United Nations Jean-Marie Gehenno talks during an interview with the Associated Press in Khartoum Sudan Wednesday, June 21, 2006. Gehenno played down Wednesday the Sudanese president's rejection of a UN mission for war-torn Darfur, stating there were "many misunderstandings" to be overcome with Khartoum. (AP Photo/ Nasser Nasser) (Nasser Nasser - AP)

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- The 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur requires urgent and effective support from the United Nations to prevent a new round of fighting later this year, AU and U.N. officials said Thursday.

"There is a risk of major violence," the U.N. peacekeeping chief, Jean-Marie Guehenno, said at the end of a two-week assessment mission to Sudan's western Darfur region. "The risk of fragmentation, of a new cycle of violence, after the rainy season is quite real, very real."

Guehenno, and the African Union's peace commissioner, Said Djinnit, were mandated by the U.N. Security Council to study the prospects for replacing the AU peacekeeping mission in Darfur by a larger, better equipped UN force. They held hundreds of meetings in the western Sudan region.

The AU troops in Darfur have been unable to halt the killing and looting that has left about 200,000 people dead and displaced another 2 million since the conflict began 2003.

The AU force needs "a more robust mandate, but also more robust support from the United Nations," Djinnit said at a news conference with Guehenno.

The one rebel leader in Darfur who signed a May 5 peace accord, Minni Minnawi, warned last week that the agreement will collapse if U.N. peacekeepers are not deployed to implement it.

But Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has ruled out any U.N. deployment in Darfur. He said Tuesday he would personally lead the "resistance" if U.N. troops came to Darfur, accusing them of being neo-colonialists.

"The U.N. is not in the business of colonizing any country," Guehenno said Thursday.

The Security Council has said it hopes to see the U.N. force take over from the AU by early 2007, but Guehenno stressed the peacekeepers would not come to Darfur without Khartoum's approval.

"As long as the government of Sudan does not accept a (U.N.) mission, there will not be one. It's as simple as that," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday he hoped al-Bashir would change his mind.

"The talks continue, and I hope ultimately we will be able to convince them to accept a U.N. force," Annan said in Geneva.

Guehenno said the immediate priority was to support the AU troops in Darfur.

"The idea of U.N. peacekeepers supporting an African Union mission would be something that has never been done before," he said.

The May 5 peace agreement had created "a window of opportunity for peace" in Darfur, but more needed to be done, Guehenno said.

While clashes between pro-government forces and rebels have largely ceased since the May 5 agreement, fighting among the rebel factions has increased, he said.

There have also been clashes between members of rival tribes, the Fur and Zaghawa, in North Darfur, the U.N. said in a statement Thursday.

Minnawi, the commander of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement who signed the accord, comes from the Zaghawa. The leader of a breakaway faction of the SLM, Abdelwahid Elnur, comes from the Fur tribe and rejected the agreement.