U.N. Official: Diplomacy Needed in Sudan

"Every day,we risk being beaten, or even worse," said Kharidja Ibrahim on Wednesday Oct 11 2006, in the north Darfur camp of Kassab, where she lives with some 25,000 other refugees. The U.N. says pro-government militias of Arab nomads are an increasing threat to refugees in Darfur, where some 200,000 people have been killed and 2,5 million displaced since 2003. (AP Photo/ Alfred de Montesquiou) (Alfred De Montesquiou - AP)

WASHINGTON -- A senior U.N. official said Thursday the Sudanese government has been able to reject proposed deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur because the U.S. and Britain have not sold the idea to other countries.

Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown credited President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for their lead roles in highlighting the suffering in Darfur. But he gave them low marks for their efforts to persuade countries to pressure President Omar al-Bashir to accept U.N. peacekeepers.

Speaking to a gathering at the Brookings Institution, Malloch Brown said pressure must be applied to African and Asian nations to convince al-Bashir to change course.

He said the world must act quickly lest Darfur's grave situation deteriorate further.

"We fear the worst because of the massive amount of Sudanese armament in the area," Malloch Brown said.

The U.N. wants to deploy 20,000 troops and police in Darfur but al-Bashir has been inflexibly opposed.

Malloch Brown said al-Bashir may be resisting out of concern that deployment of U.N. peacekeepers could lead to the arrest of Sudanese officials indicted by the International Criminal Court.

Continued rejection by Sudan of U.N. peacekeepers could produce escalating pressures on Western countries to intervene militarily, he said, adding that it is questionable that leaders of these nations would be able to resist these pressures.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack reacted sharply when informed of Malloch Brown's comment about alleged U.S. laxity in enlisting international support for dispatching peacekeepers.

"You know, it sounds like another in a series of speeches this guy is giving, being critical of others," McCormack said.

"He might allocate a little bit more of his time to doing the job at hand than going out giving speeches criticizing member states."

McCormack said such criticism should not be taken seriously, considering what President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and previous Secretary of State Colin Powell "have been doing to try to resolve this issue and to bring public attention to it."

In New York, Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. Mission at the United Nations, said Malloch Brown "rushes to blame America" instead of criticizing African and Asian countries that are not helping to ease the Darfur crisis.

McCormack said Rice, far from avoiding diplomatic discussions on Darfur, raised the issue repeatedly during her recent consultations with a number of Arab leaders during travels in the Middle East.

The Bush administration has had disagreements with Malloch Brown for some time. On the whole, his 40-minute speech Thursday contained scant criticism of the United States and included some words of praise.

On other subjects, Malloch Brown discussed possible expansion of the U.N. Security Council, recommending the addition of India, Brazil, Japan and Germany as permanent members. Only Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States are now permanent members, with the accompanying veto power.

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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.