Annan recommends 10,000-troop peace mission

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has recommended the deployment of a peace support operation in Sudan, consisting of 10,130 troops and 755 civilian police. The recommendation was made in a report to the Security Council. Warning that complex, long-term tasks lay ahead, Annan said "assisting the Sudanese parties in overcoming their differences during peace implementation will require time and patience, as well as considerable resources and perseverance". His report to the Council was released on Thursday. It followed the signing on 9 January of a comprehensive peace agreement to end the 21-year civil war between the Sudanese government and the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). The peace support mission was requested by the Sudanese parties to assist them with the numerous challenges they face, ranging from the establishment and transformation of political and civil institutions to the disarmament, demobilisation, and reintegration of large numbers of combatants. Introducing the report to the Security Council on 4 February, Jan Pronk, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sudan, warned that failure to resolve the conflicts in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan would adversely affect any peace support operation limited to South Sudan. Conflict's causes still have to be addressed - Pronk Underscoring the risk of a return of violence in South Sudan if the causes of the conflict were not addressed, Pronk said it would not be enough to monitor the ceasefire and help avoid breaches of the peace agreement. "To support the peace process and render peace sustainable, it will also be necessary to help eliminate possible reasons for the parties to the agreement to return to violence and to remove the incentive for others in the Sudan to use force in seeking a solution to their problems." Infrastructure reconstruction, recovery of productive capacity, rehabilitation of social structures, reconciliation between former opponents, poverty reduction and the reassurance that the population’s basic needs would be met from now on were all part of a comprehensive approach, Pronk explained. Annan’s report noted that "in a country the size of Western Europe [with] poor communications, few hardened roads or runways and an inoperable railway system," the challenges of operating a mission would be formidable. The May to November rainy season and the presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance would further complicate UN operations, while there was a considerable risk that criminal elements "may seek to target the United Nations for theft or other destabilizing activity," Annan added. The peace agreement envisages a government of national unity based in the capital, Khartoum, with a decentralised system of administration. The SPLM/A is to set up a separate semi-autonomous administration in the south and hold a referendum after a six-year transition period to determine whether the region will remain part of Sudan. UN mission to support peace, resettlement and reconstruction During the transitional period, the UN mission would help the parties with the repatriation of displaced populations and the clearing of landmines. It would also support post-conflict reconstruction and provide development assistance, especially in the least developed, war-affected areas in the south, whose social infrastructure and livelihood conditions "are ranked among the lowest in the world". Annan noted that substantial aid was required to resettle refugees and internally displaced populations. Between 500,000 and 1.2 million displaced people expected to return to their homes this year alone, the report said. It was anticipated that the mandate of the peace support operation would last about seven years, followed by a phase-out period during which the mission would support the implementation of the results of the referendum. The United Nations had appealed to at least 100 nations for contributions, but had received very few responses, the report noted. So far there were enough commitments to meet only the first phase of the planned deployment. The report identified a number of challenges that the process faces, including disaffected armed groups or militias unwilling to join either of the two parties. Other challenges include internal divisions within the south and the possibility that tensions that had been suppressed in the name of unity against the government could resurface. The war between the SPLM/A and the Sudanese government erupted in 1983 when the rebels took up arms to demand greater autonomy for the south. The fighting has killed at least two million people, uprooted four million more, and forced some 600,000 to flee to neighbouring countries. The conflict in Darfur, described by the UN as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, erupted in 2003. It has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted as many as 1.85 million, most of whom are internally displaced while others have fled to neighbouring Chad.