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Article: US failure to pay 'threatens Darfur peacekeeping'
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US failure to pay 'threatens Darfur peacekeeping'
· Budget plan undermines UN deal with Sudan
· Arrears likely to reach $1bn by end of 2007
Simon Tisdall in Washington
Tuesday June 19, 2007
Guardian
A breakthrough agreement to deploy a United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur risks being undermined by a shortfall of up to $1bn (£504m) in US contributions to the costs of global peacekeeping, campaigners said yesterday.
A UN delegation announced on Sunday that Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, had agreed at talks in Khartoum to allow the deployment of a 20,000-strong UN and African Union hybrid force by next year.
At least 200,000 people have died in Darfur, in western Sudan, and an estimated 2.5 million have been displaced, since fighting between government-backed militias and rebel forces erupted in 2003.
Diplomats who attended the Khartoum talks said they expected the new Darfur force, which will be under UN command, would be paid for from the UN peacekeeping budget.
But as of June 2007 the US was $569m in permanent arrears to the UN for UN peacekeeping and the administration's budget request for the UN peacekeeping account for fiscal year 2008 [beginning in October this year] was found to be short by an additional estimated $500m.
If this is left unaddressed, US arrears to the UN will exceed $1bn by the end of 2007 for peacekeeping alone, according to experts.
Deborah Derrick, executive director of the Better World Campaign, said the new Darfur agreement was being threatened by the Bush administration's failure to pay its dues.
A new global survey published by Foreign Policy magazine has underlined how high the stakes are. It named Sudan as the country most likely to become a failed state if internal conflict and deteriorating conditions were not halted. (Iraq was 2nd)
· Source: Centre on International Cooperation at New York University
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