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


dpa German Press Agency
Published: Tuesday January 30, 2007

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