Mbeki optimistic Sudan will agree to second phase of UN Darfur plan

Apr 11, 2007, 17:55 GMT

Khartoum - South African President Thabo Mbeki wrapped up a two-day visit to Sudan late Wednesday, expressing optimism that Sudan will agree to the second phase of a proposed three-phase UN support package to the embattled Darfur region.

Sudan first agreed to the three-phase plan in November, but then withdraw assurances that it would allow UN peacekeepers into the region, calling on the UN to provide only financial and logistical support to the struggling 7,000-member African Union mission charged with monitoring Darfur.

The about-face infuriated the international community and critics abroad have charged that Sudan is buying time while the conflict continues to rage in Darfur, where experts estimate at least 200,000 people have died since 2003.

At high-level meetings among representatives from the African Union, the government of Sudan and the United Nations in Addis Ababa on Tuesday, Sudan reportedly agreed to the second phase of UN support.

Phase two calls for the entry of around 3,000 UN troops and police and the use of equipment including attack helicopters.

'There are some final negotiations that will take place between the United Nations, the African Union and the Sudanese government,' Mbeki told reporters in Khartoum after meeting with Sudanese President Omer Al Bashir. 'I'm quite confident that those matters will be resolved.'

But after months of reversals, some in the international community have expressed doubt that Sudan is serious about allowing UN entry into the region.

The United States - a vocal critic of Sudan's policies in Darfur - said on Wednesday it will refrain from imposing sanctions on Sudan for several weeks to allow the country to negotiate further with the UN.

Sudan is charged with arming Arab militias known as janjaweed to crush a 2003 rebellion by members of predominantly African tribes. Rebels complained that remote Darfur remained undeveloped due to neglect by Sudan's powerful Islamist regime.

The janjaweed carried out a savage campaign of rape and murder, targeting civilian villages and driving some 2.5 million people from their homes.