Sudan: Screw the UN

Archives

November26, 2006: In the capital, there is increasing terrorist activity, with police being attacked at least four times in the last two weeks. The attackers are usually southerners, who are under pressure from the government to leave refugee camps around the capital, and move back south. Economic conditions in many parts of the south are still pretty dismal, and the refugees living up north know it. For many of them, going south would be a death sentence. But the government does not want a lot of black Sudanese living in the capital, which is largely run by Arab Sudanese.

November 25, 2006: The UN said that an attack on November 11 in the town of Sirba (in West Darfur) was a "deliberate and unprovoked attack" carried out by Sudan government forces and militia allies. The November 11 attack struck a refugee camp in the area. The Sudan government rejected the characterization. Sudan said that Sudanese soldiers participated in a raid that was a "response" to an ambush conducted by Darfurian rebels.

November 24, 2006: The UN special envoy in Sudan said that the May 5 peace agreement had failed and needed to be renegotiated. Jan Pronk, the special envoy (who is greatly disliked by the Sudanese government) said that the May 5 peace deal was "not supported by people on the ground."

November 23, 2006: The Sudan government continues to "negotiate in public" with the UN and African Union (AU) over what kind of support the UN can provide to an expanded AU-led peacekeeping force in Darfur. Sudan said that there cannot be any UN troops serving with the AU force. The UN can only provide "technical" assistance.

November 21, 2006: The United States threatened to implement a "Plan B" if Sudan does not accept a new UN/AU joint peacekeeping force in Darfur. The US said Sudan must reach a decision by January 1, 2007. The US statement only described "Plan B" as a "different approach." It is tough to tell whether the US was threatening military action or signaling its support for a UN peacekeeping force intervening in Darfur without the Sudan government's approval