Cape Town — South Africa will consider contributing helicopters and ground transport to the new hybrid African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force for Darfur, President Thabo Mbeki said today.
Speaking at a news conference in Cape Town with visiting Sudanese President Omar Hassan el-Bashir, Mbeki also said it was "very distressing" that some rebel leaders had stayed away from the Darfur peace talks which began in Libya at the end of last month, and urged them to join the talks.
At the same news conference, Bashir accused the United Nations of being responsible for delays in arranging financing for the hybrid peacekeeping force.
Bashir and a Sudanese delegation were in South Africa on a three-day working visit to discuss the peace processes in Darfur and southern Sudan, and to sign a range of bilateral agreements.
In a joint communiqué released after the meeting, Mbeki and Bashir called on three groups in particular to join the Darfur peace talks: the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army led by Abdel Wahid el Nur, the SLM/A Unity faction, and the Justice and Equality Movement led by Khalil Ibrahim.
Questioned on whether South Africa would contribute more peacekeepers to the hybrid force, which is due to deploy in Sudan at the beginning of January next year, Mbeki said the force had more offers of infantry than it needed.
But, he said, "the Secretary-General [of the UN, Ban Ki-moon] says we need helicopters, we need ground transport… We are looking at that… We are committed to making a contribution… to the extent that we can."
South Africa's defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota told journalists afterwards that South Africa had been asked to contribute to two battalions of troops. It would raise its 700-strong force already in Darfur to UN battalion strength – 800 troops – and for the second battalion it would contribute "technical capabilities" to "close the gaps so we make the mission efficient."
He added: "We decided to hold back, allowing for sister African countries, who have limited capabilities, to indicate what they are contributing. Then, given what is outstanding, especially in the technical fields, South Africa will examine what it can add… We want to see whether we can top it up."
In an interview last week, the commander of the AU-UN hybrid force, General Martin L. Agwai, told allAfrica that before the new force could deploy, there had to be a tripartite agreement between the AU, the UN and Sudan: "Until those three agree, you can't have a force, and as of now, I don't think there has been an agreement."
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Asked today whether he expected there would be agreement in time to deploy the force on time, Bashir said: "There's no new agreement that's going to be signed."
Speaking through an interpreter, he added: "All this has happened as a result of different agreements that have been well negotiated between the three parties… concerning the financing of the hybrid operation. As soon the [UN] resolution was passed, concerning the hybrid operation, the UN Secretary-General was supposed in fact to present the budget to the General Assembly of the UN but unfortunately up to now that has not happened."
The two leaders also discussed the peace process in southern Sudan. Mbeki welcomed what he said was "good news" from Bashir that the Khartoum government and leaders from the south had agreed on a three-month programme of action to address the issues which had led to southern ministers withdrawing from the central government.
