UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said Khartoum has misunderstood the
role of the proposed helicopter fleet. Ban, pointing out that the force
commander and his deputy would be Africans, said the helicopters were not
meant for offensive operations.
"This peacekeeping is itself by definition a peacekeeping operation,"
Ban said. "It is not for any offensive. This is just standard equipment
about which they should have no concern."
Officials said the UN has drafted plans to deploy another 3,000 military
personnel as well as air and other platforms in Darfour. They said the
troops and equipment would augment the African Union peace-keeping force of
7,000 in the western Sudanese province.
"We are now looking for final confirmation that the six attack
helicopters could be accepted,"
British envoy Emyr Jones Parry, president of the Security Council, said.
"And if, as we are promised, that is forthcoming in the next couple of days,
then we have the heavy support package in its entirety."
In a briefing on April 12, Parry said Sudan was close to endorsing the
UN plan. But he said Khartoum has opposed the deployment of six attack
helicopters or the eventual increase of the
AU-UN operation to more than 20,000 troops.
On April 16, Ban was scheduled to meet AU chief executive Alpha Oumar
Konare regarding a peace accord in Darfour. Earlier, the secretary-general
asked Britain and the United States to delay a draft Security Council
resolution that would impose sanctions on Sudan. The sanctions were meant to
include a weapons embargo and a ban on military flights in Darfour.
On April 16, Libya, in an effort to bypass the UN, was scheduled to host
a pan-African conference on Darfour. Libyan ruler Moammar Khaddafy has sent
troops to the volatile border between Chad and Sudan.
