U.N. Approves Darfur Peacekeeping Force
CBNNews.com
August 1, 2007
CBNNews.com - The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved sending a peacekeeping force of 26,000 troops to the Darfur region of Sudan Tuesday.
Click the video player for more on the massive peacekeeping force.
More than 200,000 people have been killed over the past four years from continued fighting in Darfur.
The current 7,000-strong beleaguered African Union force in Darfur will gratefully give way no later than December 31 to the first joint peacekeeping mission between the U.N. and the A.U.
The resolution to launch the latest peacekeeping force was said by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to be "a clear and powerful signal" by the U.N. of its devotion to the Darfur region.
He hopes the effort will "close this tragic chapter in Sudan's history."
Ban assumed the role of U.N. chief at the beginning of the year and has made the Darfur crisis a central focus ever since.
Even though Ban sees the new force as critical to Darfur's liberation from violence, he emphasizes that "it is only through a political process that we can achieve a sustainable solution to the conflict."
Talks between two major players in the conflict, Tanzania and Arusha, were said by the U.N. chief to be necessary to "yield positive results so as to pave the way for negotiations and, ultimately, a peace agreement."
In a statement by the U.N. ambassador of Sudan, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, his government will consider the resolution, which he believed "contained many positive elements, and also it went to considerable extent to satisfy our concerns."
This was a welcomed change in heart from Mohamad's response to last week's resolution, which he called "ugly" and "awful." In that draft, sanctions were threatened to be imposed, which met the stiff opposition of both Sudan and China.
There was also a warning issued by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalizad, who stressed that Sudan's noncompliance with the resolution would force the U.S. to pursue a new course of action.
"The United Sates will move for the swift adoption of unilateral and multilateral measures," Khalizad said in hopes that Sudan would accept the new accord.
Source: AP
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