Please find below a collection of excerpts regarding new developments in UN peacekeeping efforts, with particular emphasis on the question of political will, the effectiveness of current peacekeeping missions, and anything else relating to the UNEPS initiative.

This bi-weekly update is brought to you by Global Action to Prevent War; a member of the UN Emergency Peace Service Working Group. These updates and more are posted on our website at www.globalactionpw.org/UNEPS/index.htm . If you would like to receive regular updates on the creation of a rapid-reaction service to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity, please e-mail coordinator@globalactionpw.org.

UN BRIEFINGS AND RELEASES:

- Article 1: Noon Briefing (June 9): UN will probably have to increase presence in Timor-Leste. Finding troops to do so will be responsibility of UN DPKO, and countries will "have to come up with the resources that are needed."

- Article 2: Noon Briefing (June 2): SC adopts resolution to increase strength of UN peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast

NEWS:

- Article 3: Sec. Gen. Annan addresses suggestion that UN withdrew troops in East Timor too soon, and touches on idea that UN does so only in certain regions (racist nature of troop deployment--something that might be resolved with UNEPS, as opposed to individual states choosing where to deploy their own troops)

- Article 4: Update on Darfur , including AU suggestion that its troops must be more pro-active. Also includes letter written by Nobel laureates to Bush and others to push for a stronger UN intervention/peacekeeping mandate in the region.

- Article 5: Cost of prolonged conflict- more Darfurians dying now from health issues and lack of humanitarian assistance than from the actual war. Without adequate security, humanitarian assistance (which donor countries are less and less willing to contribute to) is becoming nearly impossible in certain regions.

- Article 6: Cost in lives of the UN's inability to provide adequate humanitarian assistance in Somalia due to security issues; a gap that UNEPS might help fill. Also raises issue of a natural disaster worsening a humanitarian crisis.

- Article 7: UN mission sent to Darfur to analyze needs of AU mission and possible transition to UN force, although UN recognizes that Sudanese government does not want/may not allow such a transition. This article is of particular relevance because the UN is clearly wary of how its peacekeeping force will received, possibly only sending one if it will be welcomed, despite the need.

- Article 8: New Zealand 's Prime Minister and Defence Minister discuss sending troops to East Timor in a policing capacity, and suggest that the international arena needs to play a greater role in policing during conflict.

- Article 9: UN envoy to Sudan concerned with respecting Sudan 's "sovereignty." Emyr Jones Parry guaranteed Sudanese government that "any international operation will not be carried out unless it is approved by the present government in Sudan ."

- Article 10: UN peacekeeping force needed for at least 2 years in East Timor , suggests Nobel laureate. Australian troops also suggest need for stronger policing mandate and granting foreign police the authority to charge citizens who have been arrested.

EDITORIALS/OPINIONS:

FULL TEXTS: UN BRIEFINGS AND RELEASES

Article 1:

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

  Friday, June 9, 2006 

TIMOR-LESTE: U.N. ENVOY WORKING TO FOSTER DIALOGUE & EASE TENSION

• The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Timor-Leste , Sukehiro Hasegawa, today traveled to the Eastern District of Baucau to meet with military and civil leaders in his continuing effort to forge a dialogue for peace. Last week, Hasegawa met separately with the leaders of two groups of dismissed soldiers from the western part of the county, and he maintains close contact with the government as well, having met President Xanana Gusmao on Thursday.
• In Baucau, Hasegawa also visited a displaced persons camp and spoke with camp residents to learn firsthand of their experience and assessment of living conditions in the camp.
• Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian agencies in Timor-Leste, and some international non-governmental organizations, today reported the delivery of 19 metric tons of food to camps in Dili. UN agencies also report conducting a census of school-aged children, helping to reunite displaced children with their families and setting up an early-warning system for outbreaks of infectious diseases.
• Asked about calls for the United Nations to stay on in Timor-Leste for another ten years, the Spokesman said that Ian Martin was briefing the Secretary-General today on possible options. The Secretariat, the Spokesman said, would make some recommendations on the future to the Security Council, which would discuss it over the coming week.
• He said that it was clear that the United Nations will probably have to increase its posture in Timor-Leste.
• Asked how the United Nations would find the troops for such an increased posture, the Spokesman said that was a matter for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations to discuss. If there are troop increases in Darfur and in Timor-Leste, he said, countries will have to come up with the resources that are needed.
• Dujarric added, in response to further questions, that Hasegawa is continuing his work on the ground in Timor-Leste.

For original text, please click here.

Article 2:

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING

BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Friday, June 2, 2006

SECURITY COUNCIL HEARS BRIEFINGS ON CYPRUS, SUDAN, DR CONGO; STRENGTHENS MISSION IN COTE D'IVOIRE

• The Security Council is holding its first consultations under the Danish Presidency.
   
• Six items were on the agenda – the month's programme of work , Cyprus , Sudan , the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Cote d'Ivoire and other matters.
   
• Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hedi Annabi briefed on the Secretary-General's latest report on the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus , the recent mission to Sudan he undertook with Lakhdar Brahimi, and developments in the DRC.
   
• On Cote d'Ivoire , Council members unanimously adopted a resolution that authorized an increase in the strength of the UN peacekeeping mission there of up to 1,500 additional personnel, including a maximum of 1,025 military personnel and 475 civilian police personnel.

For original text, please click here.

Article 3:

Senior UN official ‘hits ground running' in seeking to resolve Timor-Leste violence

UN News Centre

30 May 2006 – With a senior United Nations official on the ground in Timor-Leste today seeking to defuse the violence that has torn through the small country in recent weeks, UN agencies have resumed food distributions to camps holding 100,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) but conditions in them are worsening due to overcrowding and rain.

"He hit the ground running and he's been in a series of meetings already," Secretary-General Kofi Annan said of Ian Martin, head of the UN Human Rights Mission in Nepal , whom he dispatched urgently to a country which the world body shepherded to independence from Indonesia in 2002.

Mr. Annan told reporters in New York the UN would need to carefully assess the lessons of the current unrest to see whether it had withdrawn its peacekeeping forces too soon.

The UN office in Timor-Leste (UNOTIL) reported that although violence, which began last month with the dismissal of 594 soldiers (a third of the total armed forces), has decreased, looting continued and IDP camps had been attacked. Australian troops have already landed in the country at the government's request to help restore calm.

According to an assessment completed today by UN agencies and non-governmental organization (NGO) staff, some 100,000 persons are being sheltered in IDP camps, including 65,000 around Dili, the capital, whose population is 150,000.

The UN World Food Programme says it has rushed to Timor-Leste five days worth of rations for 95,000 people, but warned that more help is needed, not only with food but with shelter, sanitation, and health care.

UNOTIL said the numbers of displaced persons were swelling because of continued lack of security. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is sending in an extra team to coordinate UN and NGO assistance .

Mr. Annan, who called the situation "sad and tragic," said he is expecting a political assessment as to what went wrong from Mr. Martin, who was his Special Representative in East Timor in 1999, as it was called then, when the country voted for independence from Indonesia , which had occupied it after Portugal left in 1974.

Asked whether the UN had drawn down the peacekeeping force too quickly, Mr. Annan said: "There has been a sense that we tend to leave conflict areas too soon, and this is one of the issues that we hope the (newly formed) Peacebuilding Commission will help us address and get the message across - that when we get into these situations, we should be in for the medium to the longer term and take a longer term view, rather than a short-term view, believing that we can leave after elections."

The world organization originally set up the UN Transitional Administration (UNTAET) in 1999 to usher the country to independence in 2002, after which it replaced it with a downsized operation, the UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET). This in turn was replaced by the current residual UNOTIL.

"Would it have made a difference if the UN had stayed longer - if we had not drawn down our forces too quickly?" Mr. Annan asked. "This is something that I must assess and we have developed a follow-on mission, and I'm going to have to re-think our own proposal for the follow-on force."

"But we also need to be careful because of the way different missions are seen to be treated. Some sometimes tend to think that there is a racist content in official UN thinking, when we are dealing with some of these issues, but I don't think that is entirely correct.

"But that is a perception that we also need to address," he added, noting that the UN has been in Cyprus "for ages" as well as spending extended time in Bosnia and Herzegovina and still administering the Serbian province of Kosovo after taking it over in 1999.

For original text, please click here.

Article 4:

AU Regrets No Deal on Darfur

By REUTERS

Published: June 1, 2006

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - The African Union expressed deep regret on Thursday after two Darfur rebel factions missed an AU deadline to sign a peace deal aimed at ending the three-year-old conflict in Sudan's remote west.

The AU has raised the spectre of U.N. sanctions against the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) faction led by Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) if they did not sign before May 31.

In a statement, AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare noted ``with deep regret'' that last-minute efforts to get the two factions to sign the May 5 deal had failed.

It said the AU's Peace and Security Council will now decide whether to take punitive action against the groups. The council was expected to meet in the coming days.

In the meantime, efforts were under way to try to break the impasse and win support for the accord from all rebel factions.

A diplomatic source in Addis Ababa said about 35 dissident rebel commanders from both JEM and SLA were set to meet AU officials later on Thursday to support the Darfur peace deal.

Sudan 's First Vice President Salva Kiir, head of the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), is to meet Nur and SLA faction leader Minni Arcua Minnawi in Yei in southern Sudan on Friday to attempt a reconciliation.

The SPLM has provided support and advice to the SLA , and Nur especially has very close relations with the southerners.

Minnawi's SLA faction, the only rebel group to sign the peace deal, has the most firepower in Darfur , but Nur's faction is from the region's largest Fur tribe. Analysts say he may cause a split along ethnic lines if he does not sign.

Bot Nur's SLA and JEM say they would not sign unless changes or additions were made to the text on power sharing, compensation and disarmament -- conditions which the AU and Sudan 's government reject.

LONG ROAD TO PEACE

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million Darfuris have fled their homes to miserable camps, which have become tinderboxes of violence as thousands demonstrate against the deal on offer.

The United Nations describes the peace deal signed in Abuja, Nigeria after two years of talks as only the first step on a long road toward peace.

Diplomats say intensive dialogue involving other armed groups and tribal leadership needed to be held as quickly as possible to defuse the crisis.

The AU statement expressed concern at the worsening security situation in Darfur especially in the past few weeks. In some cases AU forces themselves have been victims of attack.

"Future violations of the ceasefire agreement will not be tolerated,'' the AU statement said, adding the 7,000-strong AU force monitoring a truce in Darfur should be more "proactive'' in self-defence and the protection of civilians.

Despite intense international pressure, Sudan has not agreed to allow U.N. forces into Darfur to take over the mission from the underfunded and ill-equipped AU force.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said Sudan asked on Thursday for more African troops to join the AU force.

"Sudan demanded forces from the Community of Sahel-Saharan States be dispatched to Darfur,'' Gaddafi told a meeting of the group in Tripoli . "We discussed that demand raised by Sudan and we agreed upon that demand."

He did not say whether Khartoum had asked for a specific number of troops and did not give any details about what force the group might provide and when it might go to Darfur .

On Thursday, dozens of Nobel laureates wrote a letter to President Bush and other leaders urging them to push hard for a tough U.N. peacekeeping mandate which would include close-air support and ground-based radar to monitor movements and enforce a no-fly zone.

"Darfur will not stabilize unless the peacekeeping force has the tools to do the job,'' said the letter signed by Nobel Peace Prize winners as well as laureates in chemistry, physics, medicine and economics.

For original text, please click here.

Article 5 :

As Darfur War Rages On, Disease and Hunger Kill

By LYDIA POLGREEN

Published: May 31, 2006 in the New York Times

ZAM ZAM, Sudan , May 24 — The boy's legs were limp. Folds of skin hung loosely from his bones, easily holding the shape of the doctor's pinch — a telltale sign of dehydration.

His face glowed with fever, and his narrow chest heaved and fluttered. His milky eyes darted desperately around the dim tent. He was a month old but weighed less than five pounds.

If this child, Mukhtar Ahmed, could be said to have had any good fortune in his short life, it is that he fell ill last week, and not a month from now. Within a few weeks even the doctor treating him may be gone.

Dr. Sayid Obeid Bakhiet's clinic, one of just two left in this vast, squalid camp of 35,000 people displaced by the conflict in the huge Darfur region of western Sudan , is out of money. It will be forced to close at the end of June unless the organization that runs it, the Sudanese Red Crescent, finds more cash, Dr. Bakhiet said.

"What will happen to these people when I am gone?" he asked as he rushed between the flood of patients he sees — as many as 80 a day, six days a week. "Only God knows."

The brutal war in Darfur has set off what the United Nations has called the "world's worst humanitarian crisis," a crucible of death that seems to grow grimmer despite a new peace agreement. But it is not bullets that kill most people here now. It is pneumonia borne on desert dust, diarrhea caused by dirty water, malaria carried by mosquitoes to straw huts with no nets.

At least 200,000 and perhaps as many as 450,000 have died as a direct result of the conflict in Darfur, according to estimates by international health and human rights organizations, though no one is sure how many of the deaths have come from combat and how many from the hunger and disease that have been caused or worsened by the war.

But these days, people mostly die because they cannot get health care, clean water or enough food.

Local and international aid organizations here are trying to stave off these deaths, but their ranks are shrinking. They take care of 2.5 million people driven from their homes and farms with a diminishing pool of money as donors, particularly in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, have not sent all the money they pledged to Darfur . Beyond that, they work under tight restrictions imposed by Sudanese officials and face attacks by combatants who hijack their vehicles and menace their workers.

The conditions are so dire that the effort faces a widespread collapse, Jan Egeland, the top United Nations aid official, told the Security Council this month.

The peace agreement seeks to end the war in Darfur , in which rebels seeking autonomy and wealth for this impoverished region have fought against the government and its allied Arab militias.

But the accord will not end the catastrophe here anytime soon.

In the camp at Zam Zam for people displaced by the fighting, a health center run by Doctors Without Borders closed earlier this month, and no other international organization has stepped in to fill the gap.

The Spanish Red Cross, the organization coordinating the handful of remaining charities working in the camp, is frantically trying to find more money to keep Dr. Bakhiet's clinic going, and is optimistic that a donor will be found.

It is negotiating with one organization that has tentatively agreed to support the clinic. But that organization, like so many in Darfur , faces a shrinking pool of donations, and it has not yet committed the money, aid officials here said….

…then last month, Unicef said child malnutrition in Darfur was creeping back up toward the level it reached in 2004, when the crisis was at its worst. The World Food Program announced this month that it would halve rations for Darfur because it had received only 32 percent of the $746 million it needed to feed the needy in Darfur .

Those cuts have been largely restored, because the Sudanese government released 20,000 tons of grain for Darfur from its vast strategic reserves after intense criticism. Several shiploads of grain donated by the United States are on their way, and other countries have made donations since rations were cut, but it will take months for the food to arrive where it is needed most, aid officials said.

Delays are costly. Once the rainy season begins, seasonal roads wash out and food must be transported by helicopter. Sending a ton of food by road costs about $300, while transporting it by air can cost three to five times as much.

But money is not the only problem. Red tape has hamstrung the aid effort. Foreign workers wait months for permits and visas from the Sudanese government, and those already here are forced to pay hundreds of dollars every three months to renew their visas. Local workers face harassment and intimidation by Sudanese intelligence agents, government soldiers and rebels.

Staff members of aid organizations have been abducted or killed and their four-wheel-drive vehicles stolen by rebels and Arab militias. Because of such security problems, as many as 750,000 people in Darfur are beyond the reach of aid workers.

Sudan 's humanitarian affairs minister, Kosti Manyebi, told reporters in Khartoum that new rules to improve access for aid organizations were being drafted, but it was not clear when they would take effect.

In Zam Zam, Mukhtar's mother was having trouble finding the money to go to El Fasher, and Dr. Bakhiet grew nervous. He had lost one little boy 10 days earlier to a deadly combination of disease just like Mukhtar's and could not bear to see it happen again.

Mukhtar had his second stroke of good luck: an African Union team visiting the camp agreed to take him and his mother to El Fasher, where Mukhtar was admitted to the hospital. The emergency room doctor who examined him there was guardedly optimistic about the boy's prognosis.

He uttered the ubiquitous Arabic phrase, invoked endlessly in this merciless place: inshallah, or God willing.

"Inshallah, he will live," the doctor said.

For original text, please click here.

Article 6:

As fighting and drought rage on in Somalia , UN humanitarian efforts face huge shortfall

UN News Centre

5 June 2006 – Although the Somali capital of Mogadishu is torn by some of the worst fighting in a decade with 300 people dead, 1,500 injured and 17,000 displaced, and though conflict and drought are wracking the south of the country, the United Nations faces a huge shortfall in the $326 million dollars it is seeking to cover urgent humanitarian needs there.

"The recent indiscriminate shelling in Mogadishu and spreading fighting in the environs of the capital have resulted in enormous human suffering," UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said in his latest statement on the country, which has been torn by factional fighting since the collapse of President Muhammad Siad Barre's regime 15 years ago.

"At a time when people most need medical care and surgical attention, the occupation of Keysaney hospital by armed fighters constitutes a gross violation of international humanitarian law," he added.

Six months into 2006, the UN's $326-million appeal for the East African country has garnered only $135 million. While needs for food are 60 per cent covered, all other needs identified in the appeal have less than 25 per cent of the funds required.

The situation of displaced people, mainly fleeing fighting in the south of the country, is an increasing humanitarian disaster, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) said.

Due to the intensity of recent fighting, an increasing number of civilians have been unable to reach medical facilities. The recent upsurge in hostilities comes at a time when southern Somalia is experiencing a humanitarian emergency due to drought, the statement added.

"The Transitional Federal Government, and all warring factions, need to do more to ensure safe humanitarian access and protection of civilians at all times, including those in Mogadishu ," Mr. Egeland said.

The Transitional Government, originally formed in Kenya in an effort to bring peace and stability to the tortured country, does not sit in Mogadishu but in the town of Baidoa .

Currently Mogadishu is the only capital in the world where the UN does not have access for international humanitarian staff, due to insecurity and despite an estimated 250,000 internally displaced living in the city. The aid community is especially concerned over the delay in the polio and measles immunization campaigns .

For original text, please click here.

Article 7:

Sudan: UN-African Union mission to leave early next week for Darfur

UN News Centre

2 June 2006 – A joint United Nations-African Union team will head early next week to Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region to assess the needs of the AU's peacekeeping mission there as well as the possible transition to a UN force, a senior United Nations official said today.

"This mission will be leaving in the next few days and will assemble in Addis in the first part of next week, it will then travel on to Khartoum as a joint team from UN-AU team," Hédi Annabi, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, told reporters after briefing the Security Council.

The mission will conduct consultations with the Sudanese Government before going to Darfur "to meet with the local authorities, establish contact with them, look into the requirements of AMIS (the AU Mission in Sudan) to enable that force to perform the additional tasks foreseen for AMIS under the Darfur Peace Agreement," he said.

"The mission will also conduct an assessment of the requirements of the transition to a UN peace operation" should such an operation be established, he added.

While the Government has agreed to the deployment of an assessment team to Darfur , it has not yet agreed to a transition to a UN operation. "I think that is it is understood that we are conducting the assessment mission without prejudice to the decisions that will need to be taken by the various actors involved – the Government of Sudan, the AU and the UN Security Council," Mr. Annabi said.

"We have tried to make it clear to them that for us, the main purpose of that force would be to assist in the implementation of the provisions of the Darfur agreement," he noted. "In other words, a peacekeeping operation whose sole purpose would be to assist the parties who have concluded the agreement to bring back peace to that long-suffering region of Sudan ."

In another development, the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), James Morris, was slated to arrive in Khartoum today to visit the agency's largest emergency operation, which was hit recently by a severe shortage of funds to feed some 6.1 million people across Sudan .

After meetings with government ministers in the capital on Saturday, Mr. Morris will fly to South Sudan , where WFP feeds hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese returning home after 21 years of war.

"It is vital that donors come forward now – especially in the light of last year's Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the civil war and the recent Darfur Peace Agreement," Mr. Morris said.

The war displaced more than four million southern Sudanese inside the country and another 600,000 are scattered in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.

WFP's emergency operation in Sudan, with a budget of $746 million, was only half funded and contributions, especially cash, are needed to end ration cuts and cover requirements for the last quarter of 2006 and into 2007.

For original text, please click here.

Article 8:

NZ police may go to East Timor

Stuff.co.nz

07 June 2006

Defence Minister Phil Goff heads to East Timor today for a first hand assessment of the situation there as the Government considers sending police to help restore order in the strife-torn capital Dili.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday two police officers would go to Dili and report to the Government ahead of a decision on sending a civilian force to join troops struggling to control marauding gangs of youths.

There are about 180 Defence Force personnel in East Timor , along with 1300 Australian troops and Portuguese paramilitary police.

Australia also has scores of federal police in Dili, and the commander of its military force says more are needed.

"It is about getting criminals off the streets, and police do that better than soldiers," said Brigadier Mick Slater.

Miss Clark said it seemed a greater international police presence would be necessary, and the Cabinet would consider the report sent back by the New Zealand officers.

Mr Goff said last night he would be accompanied by Defence Secretary Graham Fortune on the brief visit.

They will meet East Timor 's Defence Minister Jose Ramos Horta and other key leaders.

"My visit is intended to give me a first hand impression of the tasks our defence force is undertaking, and what more needs to be done to restore security and stability in East Timor," Mr Goff said.

"Obviously this will involve not only Defence Force personnel of the countries currently involved, but also a wider international role in policing."

Mr Goff and Mr Fortune will discuss the problems that led to the crisis when they meet East Timorese politicians.

Australia 's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer visited Dili at the weekend on a similar mission.

For original text, please click here.

Article 9:

Sudan Delays Approval of U.N. Peacekeepers

By EDITH M. LEDERER

The Associated Press (Washington Post)
Tuesday, June 6, 2006; 7:47 PM

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- The Sudanese government told a high-level Security Council delegation Tuesday that it would not give immediate approval for a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur, but was willing to keep talking about the takeover from African Union troops.

Senior representatives of the 15 Security Council nations met Tuesday with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Foreign Minister Lam Akol and members of Parliament on a visit to the capital Khartoum . During closed door meetings, they discussed at length the transfer of peacekeeping responsibilities from a 7,000-strong African Union mission that has been unable to quell fighting in Darfur to a more muscular U.N. force.

"There has been no agreement and discussions continue," Britain 's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who is leading the U.N. mission, said of a U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur which the U.S. is strongly in favor of.

Standing beside Akol at a news conference, Jones Parry said: "Where I think we are agreed, minister, is that the objective of the mission is to establish the conditions for a transition to a United Nations force, and if that can be done with satisfaction of the government, then it will happen."

Akol said the government had "been assured" that any U.N. role in Darfur must be discussed with Sudanese leaders. He said the idea would be explored further next week in talks with a joint U.N.-African Union team that is scheduled to arrive in Khartoum on Friday. The joint mission will then head to Darfur to make a technical assessment for a possible U.N. takeover, report back to the Sudanese government and its own leaders, Akol said.

"What we are saying, and what we have been saying all along, is that the government of Sudan has nothing against the U.N., and that whatever role for the U.N. must be discussed with the Sudanese government. We have been assured of that."

The Sudanese government and the main Darfur rebel group signed a peace agreement in May and the Security Council delegation is pressing for full implementation of the accord. Two smaller rebel groups are refusing to sign the peace deal.

"We came with words of encouragement and some tough love," U.S. Deputy Ambassador Jackie Sanders said. "I think we made our positions clear. We were a very united Security Council today which was a real plus."

Decades of low-level clashes in Darfur over land and water erupted in early 2003 when rebel groups made up of ethnic Africans rose up against the Arab-led Khartoum government. The government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias known as the Janjaweed who have been accused of some of the worst atrocities. The Sudanese government denies backing the Janjaweed, but agreed to rein them in under the May peace agreement. Violence, though, has only increased since the accord.

Nearly 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced in three years of fighting.

The government's opposition to the U.N. force was fueled last month when a council resolution to spur planning for a handover was adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter which allows military action, sparking fears of U.N. intervention in Sudan.

Jones Parry said the council assured the president that a U.N. takeover of peacekeeping in Darfur "could only happen with the consent of the government."

"There is no question of an intervention force," Jones Parry said.

Still, it could be months before U.N. troops are in place. The security situation, meanwhile, is worrying, with myriad armed groups apparently jockeying for position ahead of being forced to lay down arms following the adoption last month of a peace treaty. International humanitarian groups who say Darfur 's civilians are at risk and their own aid programs threatened say violent criminals also are taking advantage of the general chaos.

In Geneva, U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday Janjaweed militia are becoming more systematic in their cross-border attacks from Darfur into Chad and added that violence against Chadian civilians is escalating.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees called on both Chad and Sudan to step up border security to prevent further attacks by militia, who are increasingly uprooting civilians from their homes and sometimes killing them, spokesman Ron Redmond said.

Some 50,000 native Chadians have been forced from their homes by the violence in recent months and the insecurity also is threatening more than 200,000 Darfur refugees currently in Chad , according to the agency.

Redmond said victims have attributed the attacks to Sudanese janjaweed militia, sometimes abetted by different Chadian tribes. Chadian rebels have their bases along the border and Chad 's government accuses Sudan of backing them, while Sudan accuses Chad of backing Darfur rebels.

For original article, please click here.

Article 10:

Rebel Leader Receptive to East Timor Talks

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 7, 2006

Filed at 7:44 a.m. ET

DILI, East Timor (AP) -- An East Timor rebel leader said Wednesday that he was open to further talks on ending the troubled country's wave of violence, but made clear that any solution should not include a role for the embattled prime minister.

''We are trying to set up a good mechanism to conduct a dialogue in the near future,'' said Alfredo Reinado, a former military police commander who met Tuesday with Defense Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace laureate appointed last week in a bid to ease tensions.

''For my part, I'm ready any time to sit at the table to find out who is wrong and correct the problem,'' Reinado added.

Some 600 striking soldiers in East Timor were dismissed in March, triggering clashes with loyalist forces that gave way to gang warfare last month in the capital, Dili. The rebels fled to the hills and are demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

''Through dialogue we can get real justice, especially for the dismissed soldiers,'' Reinado told The Associated Press by telephone. He said he hoped talks could help rebuild East Timor ''as a proud nation before the international community, without Mari Alkatiri.''

Many East Timorese blame Alkatiri for the country's crisis because he oversaw the dismissal of the striking soldiers.

Ramos-Horta met with Reinado at his camp in Maubisse on Tuesday, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. He held talks with other rebel leaders on Monday.

''The minister left the meetings with a clear understanding of their intention to be involved in an all-inclusive dialogue to settle the political differences,'' the ministry said Wednesday.

Ramos-Horta also said Wednesday that a U.N. -led police force will be needed in East Timor for at least two years to help restore stability to the tiny nation. He said the United Nations was expected to debate the size and shape of the force next week and that it could be deployed within two to three months.

Weeks of unrest have left at least 30 people dead and forced tens of thousands of fearful residents to flee their homes for makeshift camps and shelters in and around the city. U.N. agencies have delivered emergency airlifts of food and other supplies.

The wave of unrest is the worst since East Timor 's bloody break from Indonesian rule in 1999, when retaliatory militia groups devastated much of the territory and killed nearly 1,500 people.

Several homes were set on fire Wednesday at an Indonesian police barracks converted into private housing. But the violence appeared to ease a day after President Xanana Gusmao, an adored former guerrilla chief, tearfully pleaded with his countrymen to stop burning their capital. On Tuesday, rampaging gangs torched buildings, and hundreds of young men looted a warehouse.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and its East Timor affiliate said they have responded to 40 requests for help concerning missing relatives.

''Having to cope with the violence and the loss of one's home is hard enough,'' said Ida Bucher, head of the ICRC mission in Dili. ''But not knowing what has become of a loved one is even worse.''

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, facing criticism that peacekeepers weren't doing enough to restore order, called for foreign police to be authorized to arrest arsonists and looters. Peacekeepers can now detain troublemakers but are not allowed to charge them.

Downer also wants Australian police numbers in East Timor to double to about 200.

''It's not to say though that just by getting more police on the ground in East Timor, that is automatically going to solve the problem,'' Downer said in Adelaide, Australia. ''In order for day-to-day police work to be conducted by foreign police, there will almost certainly have to be a change in the law of East Timor .''

Australian troops earlier Wednesday detained about 15 men who were trying to break into a motorcycle store on the road into the capital from the airport. The men were led away in plastic handcuffs in what one soldier called a show of force aimed at discouraging lawlessness.

Ian Martin, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy to East Timor , stressed the need for elections to be held as scheduled next year, with the United Nations playing ''a crucial role.''

''The U.N. is certainly going to be with Timor Leste (East Timor) through this time of crisis and beyond,'' Martin said before leaving for New York to brief Annan and the U.N. Security Council.

Article 11:

Creating a Capability to Protect

Peter H. Gantz
Refugees International

Fri., Apr. 21, 2006

The pattern repeats itself too often. Genocide or mass atrocities occur, but those countries most able to stop the violence will not intervene militarily. Too often we depend on bargain solutions to our gravest problems, such as relying on the well-meaning, but overwhelmed African Union forces to stop genocide in Darfur . Not surprisingly, cheap solutions often turn out to be poor solutions. If the global community is truly determined to end genocide, it should help create a force that really has the ability to stop mass killing —to prevent the next Darfur .

The 2005 World Summit promoted an international responsibility to protect —that is, when a state is brutalizing its own people, the international community should act to stop that brutality regardless of that state's claim to sovereignty. But the notion that there is a responsibility to stop genocide is empty rhetoric without an international capability to intervene with the force necessary to stop the violence and end the suffering.

What about UN peacekeepers? With the right mandate, resources, and will, ordinary peacekeepers can help a peace process move forward, such as in Mozambique , but genocide occurs when there is no peace to keep. Peacekeepers have failed to prevent mass killing and human rights abuses in Srebrenica , Rwanda , Sierra Leone , and now Darfur . In crisis after crisis, we have seen all too clearly the limitations of ordinary peacekeeping when atrocities are occurring.

In short, the current UN system cannot provide what is needed to stop genocide. Troops of uneven quality from a multitude of countries—thrown together for possibly the first time—simply do not have the cohesion necessary for success. The UN does not have a proper command and control system, intelligence capabilities, or the logistical support system for an effective and coherent fighting force.

If diplomacy and less intrusive solutions fail, stopping genocide may require a military response. However, an intervention force has to have "military superiority," or be capable of fighting better and more effectively than the enemy. NATO offers such a model. It maintains minimal permanent military capabilities, but has understandings, agreed standards, and well-tuned procedures in place to mobilize forces quickly following a political decision to act. Consequently, NATO can more easily create a coherent multilateral force out of earmarked national units.

Article 12:

"The Doable Dozen"
American Prospect Magazine
6 June 2006

Whether or not the Democrats have a Big Idea, they—and some Republicans, too!—have a slew of very good small ones. Here's an unscientific list of 12 that don't ask for the moon but deserve to see the light of day.

National health care? Demolition and reconstruction of the tax code? A comprehensive war on poverty? Well, maybe not—yet. But if the pollsters are right and Election 2006 proves to be a dark day for the right and a bright dawn for the left, there's plenty that a renewed progressive majority could enact immediately. Herewith are a dozen doable ideas, most of them languishing in Congress right now, many of them poised to tip onto the floor and into the lawbooks if a more liberal leadership began scheduling votes.

#4 : Rush to Peace

The Problem: Global conflict resolution in crisis
The Solution: U.N. Emergency Peace Service

When global crises demand a United Nations peacekeeping force, it is up to the Secretary General to cajole member countries to commit troops and funds. Kofi Annan likens this part of his job to a fire chief who must beg for trucks and volunteers to put out a fire. Inevitably, too few blue helmets are deployed months too late. By the time peacekeepers arrive, the conflict has spiraled out of control, countless lives have been lost, and the costs of maintaining security and rebuilding have increased manifold.

Enter the United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS), a rapid-response service designed to intervene in emerging crises. Legislation proposed by Maryland Democrat Albert Wynn, and cosponsored by the soon-to-retire Republican Jim Leach of Iowa , supports creating a 10,000- to 15,000-strong multinational UNEPS force comprising military personnel, police officers, medical workers, engineers, and other legal and technical advisers. "Think of it as a global 911 service,” says Don Kraus, executive vice president of Citizens for Global Solutions. Before natural disasters turn into large-scale humanitarian emergencies, and before local conflicts morph into civil or regional wars, this force would be tapped to prevent a crisis from escalating into catastrophe. Wynn estimates that UNEPS would cost the U.N. $2 billion to create and less than $1 billion per year to sustain. For the international community, and especially for the United States , this would be a bargain: According to the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, donor countries could have saved $130 billion of the $200 billion they spent on conflict management in the 1990s if they'd focused on conflict prevention rather than post-conflict reconstruction. The ultimate purpose of this legislation is not to appropriate U.S. dollars to create the UNEPS. Rather, Wynn is promoting a concept that has been kicking around in academia and nongovernmental organizations for the past five years in hopes that a U.S. President (probably not this one) will take notice and push the idea at the United Nations.

— Mark Goldberg

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