2ND AU summit ends without progress in Darfur, Somali crises By Ulrike Koltermann


dpa German Press Agency
Published: Tuesday January 30, 2007

By Ulrike Koltermann, Addis Ababa (dpa)- The Africa Union summit ended Tuesday without reaching a breakthrough in the continent's two most acute crises in Darfur and Somalia. According to diplomatic sources, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for 90 minutes to urge him to support a plan to deploy a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping operation to Darfur.

In a statement released afterwards, Ban said that the Sudanese leader had agreed to accelerate the political process and prepare for the peacekeeping deployment.

But Bashir has yet to give his full support to the joint deployment, which was detailed in a letter sent to him by Ban on January 24 containing specifics agreed with the AU. If finally agreed by Khartoum, thousands of UN-AU troops would be deployed in Darfur.

Ban said, "No more time can be lost. The people in Darfur have waited too long already. That is totally unacceptable."

African leaders and heads of government had denied al-Bashir the leadership of the African Union by giving it to Ghana's President John Agyekum Kufuor backtracking on a controversial promise last year to appoint Sudan, a move widely rejected because of the crisis in embattled Darfur.

Chad President Idriss Deby, stressed however, that the situation in Darfur had worsened last year. Chad is now sheltering 230,000 refugees in camps in the border region.

Chad is one of Sudan's sworn enemies and had said it would withdraw from the AU, if Sudan was given the AU chair.

Analysts believe Sudan is trying to prevent the deployment of a peacekeeping mission to Darfur for fear UN troops could arrest suspected war criminals.

Sudan consider UN forces an interference in domestic affairs although it has already permitted a UN mission in the south of the country.

Meanwhile, Somalia's president agreed Tuesday to hold a reconciliation conference aimed at restoring political stability to the anarchic country torn apart by clan rivalries.

President Abdullahi Yusuf agreed to hold a conference that, if successful, may draw the once-powerful Islamists into a power-sharing government.

"We would like to negotiate with all Somalis. Anyone who wants peace is our citizen and we are ready to cooperate," Yusuf said.

Earlier, EU aid chief Louis Michel said Yusuf intended to hold the conference, adding that the almost 20 million dollars slated for a peacekeeping mission in Somalia would not be released unless Yusuf agreed to the reconciliation talks.

AU chairman, Alpha Oumar Konare stressed on Monday that "chaos" would ensue in Somalia, if a peacekeeping mission was not deployed soon to the Horn of Africa country.

While the United States has also agreed to send peacekeeping forces to Somalia, Konare said only 4,000 troops have been offered out of a planned 8,000-strong deployment.

"If African troops are not deployed quickly, there will be chaos," Konare said.

He said Uganda, Nigeria, Malawi and Ghana have offered troops to help the newly-powerful Somali transitional government bring order to the lawless country that was somewhat stable during six months of Islamist rule.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency