IANS,
New York: 'Limited progress' has been made in talks between Sudan and the European Union in Lisbon on the joint deployment of the UN-African Union peacekeeping force to Sudan's Darfur, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said.
The meeting under the mediation of Portugal, the current EU chair, was attended by UN and African officials to try to overcome obstacles preventing a faster deployment, including a lack of helicopters. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on governments to make the aircraft available to bolster the joint peace force.
'There has been limited progress in terms of implementation of the deployment, but many important issues remained unresolved,' Khalilzad told reporters, after emerging from a closed-door session of the UN Security Council where the issues were discussed.
Khalilzad said the Sudanese government cannot pick and choose which countries contribute troops and aircraft to the peacekeeping mission. Sudan has rejected US military helicopters, and Khalilzad confirmed that the UN had not directly requested helicopters from the US.
'We strongly support the capability for the deployment, but we were not asked directly,' he said, implying the US would make helicopters available if asked.
Ban said no countries have come forward with any helicopters.
'In Europe alone, there are thousands of military helicopters of different types,' Ban said in a message to the World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome Friday.
'Large numbers of helicopters also exist in Asia and the Americas,' he said. 'Any assistance the governments in these regions can offer would be profoundly appreciated, not least by the people of Darfur.'
More than 30,000 military and civilian personnel are being deployed as part of the UN-AU mission, but it is short of transportation and aircraft. The UN had called for attack helicopters as part of the mission, but the Sudanese government originally opposed the idea.
The operations to monitor peace agreements to end the ethnic conflict in Darfur, which since 2003 has killed more than 300,000 people and made more than 2 million refugees.
Ban said capabilities on the ground were still 'dangerously lacking' for the operations to be effective.
'In the past weeks and months, I have contacted, personally, every possible contributor of helicopters – in the Americas, in Europe, in Asia. And yet, not one helicopter has been made available.
He called on the Nobel Peace Prize laureates to use their influence to work for peace in Darfur.
