Sudan Says No as U.N. Backs Force For Darfur

The U.N. Security Council yesterday approved a long-sought resolution that would place an expanded peacekeeping force in Sudan's troubled Darfur region under U.N. authority, even as the government appeared to have begun a new offensive against rebel forces.

The new U.N. mandate would take effect only with Sudan's consent, and its president, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, immediately rejected it. Officials in Khartoum have repeatedly said that they favor the current African force, under the auspices of the African Union, instead of one from the United Nations.

The African Union, however, favors the transfer of control to the United Nations, saying it is unable to keep the peace and will soon run out of funds.

The stalemate over the troops and the new outbreak of fighting appeared to signal the failure of a peace deal reached three months ago that was hailed by the Bush administration as the key to resolving the conflict. Only one rebel group, with little support from the population, signed the agreement, and it has joined forces with Sudanese troops in an effort to crush ethnic African tribes challenging the Arab-led Khartoum government.

The peace agreement was brokered by Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, but he has since left the government, as have many of his key advisers on Sudan.

The Darfur conflict broke out in early 2003 when African rebel groups attacked police stations and military outposts. The United Nations and human rights groups accuse the central government of supporting militiamen, called the Janjaweed, in an effort to crush the rebellion.

About 2,000 villages have been destroyed across Darfur; violence and disease have left as many as 450,000 people dead and 2 million homeless. Two years ago, the Bush administration accused Bashir's government of abetting genocide.

The peace agreement, rather than ending the fighting, appears to have rekindled it. There are widespread reports of the major rearming of government forces and the two rebel groups that did not sign the peace deal. They have since joined forces and have apparently acquired shoulder-fired missiles.

The rebel group led by Minni Minnawi -- who met with President Bush at the White House in July, after he signed the May peace deal -- has, in effect, become a paramilitary arm of the government. Growing numbers of Land Rover vehicles and Toyota trucks with machine guns have been reported in northern Darfur.

Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi E. Frazer flew to Khartoum this week to persuade Bashir to change his mind on the U.N. force, dangling the possibility of a meeting with Bush if Bashir accepted. Bashir made Frazer wait three days before he saw her, and he signaled that he had not changed his mind. But Frazer said yesterday that she was "very confident" Bashir would ultimately accept.

The U.N. resolution would create a peacekeeping force of as many as 22,500 military and police personnel, compared with the 7,000 currently serving under the African Union in an area the size of France. The U.N. force would also have a much stronger mandate to prevent an outbreak of violence.

About 5,000 members of the African Union force could be immediately placed under U.N. authority, but officials have not yet determined which countries would provide the rest.