UNITED NATIONS — Two senior United Nations officials on Friday gave the Security Council a grim account of the situation complicating international efforts to protect civilians in Darfur, the Sudanese region where 200,000 have died and 2.5 million have been chased from their homes.
The officials said that deployment of United Nations peacekeeping forces continued to be stalled and that rebel groups showed little willingness to enter peace talks.
Jan Eliasson, the special envoy for Darfur, said the present impasse could cause the people of Darfur, particularly those in overcrowded camps, to lose confidence in the ability of the United Nations to help them.
Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the under secretary general for peacekeeping, warned that if Darfurians “see that we cannot meet their expectations — and their expectations are very high — then I think they will be in a very difficult situation.”
Mr. Eliasson said that the fragmented rebel groups fighting the government had merged into five identifiable groups, but that only two of them were willing to consider even the preparatory steps to peace negotiations.
“Prospects for quick agreements on common positions and a negotiation team appear dim,” he said.
He added that “while the people of Darfur cannot wait forever, we will have to accept that the steps towards an eventual peace agreement will be incremental and will take longer than we have initially hoped.”
The two men said that continued violence undermined United Nations efforts and that the current clashes between Chad and Chadian rebel groups based across the border in Sudan were a threat to the entire region.
Mr. Guéhenno said the international peacekeeping force for Darfur urgently needed a decision by the government in Khartoum to permit the participation of critical military units from Thailand and Nepal. Only a third of the anticipated 26,000 members of the force — a joint effort by the United Nations and the African Union — are in Darfur, and the government has been objecting to the participation of non-African troops.
Mr. Guéhenno said that the force was “predominately African,” as the Security Council resolution authorizing it had specified, but that it could not be “exclusively African,” as Sudan seemed to be insisting, and still be able to fulfill its mission.
Mr. Guéhenno said some progress was being made on the operating arrangements for the new force, but that still missing were agreements giving it full freedom of movement at all hours and visas for contractors.
The force also lacked the 18 tactical and six attack helicopters it needs, despite a loan promised this week of a small number of aircraft from Ethiopia. “Darfur is a vast area, and we must have the ability to quickly move troops to strategic points,” Mr. Guéhenno said.
Sudanese Strike in West Darfur
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) — Sudanese aircraft, army forces and militiamen attacked three towns in West Darfur on Friday, causing heavy civilian casualties, Darfur rebels and witnesses said.
Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr, a commander of the Justice and Equality Movement, a rebel group, put the initial death toll around 200 but said it was hard to tell because the army was still there.
The governor of West Darfur State, Abu el-Gasim, confirmed that armed forces had moved on Sirba, Suleia and Abu Surouj to retake them from the rebels. But he denied any casualties or bombing.
