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'UN Force in Darfur Is Slow and Without Teeth'

A US diplomat was shot dead in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Tuesday, just one day after a joint United Nations-African Union force took over peacekeeping duties in the region of Darfur. German newspapers on Wednesday are pessimistic about how much the new UN force can achieve.

Just one day after a joint United Nations-African Union force took over peacekeeping duties in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan, a US diplomat was killed in the capital Khartoum.

John Granville, 33, an official from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was being driven home from a New Year's Eve party at the British Embassy in the early hours of Tuesday morning when a vehicle cut his car off and opened fire. Sudanese officials said that his driver, 40-year-old Abdel-Rahman Abbas, was killed immediately while Granville received five gunshot wounds to his hand, shoulder, and stomach. He died several hours later, making him first American diplomat to be killed in Sudan since the assassination of US Ambassador Cleo Noel in 1973.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali Sadig told reporters on Tuesday that Granville's murder "was isolated and has no political or ideological connotations," and that the culprits "would be apprehended." However, Walter Braunohler, a public diplomacy officer at the US embassy in Khartoum, was more suspicious, saying that it was "too early to tell" whether the attack was terror-related.

The early-morning shooting came just one day after the UN took command of the African peacekeeping force in Darfur. The handover ceremony took place in North Dafur's capital, El Fasher, on Monday. African troops symbolically replaced their green helmets with UN blue berets.

The combined African Union/United Nations Hybrid Union in Darfur (UNAMID) will be based in El Fasher and comprises 9,000 soldiers and police. By mid-January, Ethiopa, Egypt, and other UN-member nations are to send troops that will eventually total 26,000 -- 20,000 soldiers and 6,000 police -- building up throughout the year. The cost of the UN deployment, agreed upon in July 2007, is estimated at $2 billion and is scheduled to begin in six weeks. If seen to fruition it will be the largest peacekeeping force in the world.

Meanwhile, Monday also saw US president George W. Bush sign into law a bill that makes it easier for US mutual fund managers, state and local governments, and institutional investors to divest from companies with business relations in Sudan, particularly in its oil sector. The bill, named the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act, had passed unanimous congressional approval. International human rights experts report that the Darfur conflict has claimed the lives of some 200,000 people and displaced another 2.5 million over the past four years.

The timing of Granville's murder, coming so soon after the UN takeover and Bush's bill signing, has lead to some speculation that there might have been a terrorist motive. Sudan was al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden's operational home until the government expelled him in the 1990s, and al-Qaida has called for jihad on UN peacekeepers in Sudan as recently as September 2007.

The UN takeover of the peacekeeping mission was greeted with little enthusiasm by German newspapers on Wednesday.

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

"The mission has been re-labled UNAMID. And now it comes directly under UN command. But that's really all that's changed."

"No one really knows if the troops will reach the 26,000 level the UN has agreed upon. There are a number of UN-member nations that are prepared to send troops, but the government in Sudan is still stonewalling and debating that force's configuration. It gave the OK on the location of barracks and air fields, but at the same time prohibited night-time activity by the UN observers. And UNAMID still does not have the necessary helicopters, although it asked for them months ago. Without fast air transport and the capability to survey an expansive area, the blue helmets will simply be ineffective. And they don't have a strong mandate from the Security Council. If they did, they would be able to defend villages under attack and disarm militias. But instead (the force) remains slow and without teeth -- even if it becomes a stronger force in Darfur. But the biggest problem remains the fulfilment of the UN troops' original mission, namely the security of a ceasefire peace agreement in Darfur -- which still does not exist."

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"It's an embarrassing start for the peacekeeping troops in Sudan. What the UN and African Union intended as the biggest blue-helmet mission began with a few overworked soldiers who don't have the means to move around the desert. This makes a mockery of securing peace and saving human lives. After the genocide in Rwanda, governments worldwide vowed that a disaster like that would never happen again. But in Darfur the international community failed again.

"It is true that western nations are challenged by their commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and other crisis areas. But it's hard to believe that the richest nations on earth cannot get together two dozen helicopters. What's missing is not the money or material, but political will."

"The biggest blockade to the peacekeeping mission is the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir. He makes a fool of everyone with his changing concessions and blockades. The African and Arabic states must seriously exert pressure on al-Bashir to come around. There cannot just be a military peace operation for Darfur. There has to be one political solution for all of Sudan."

-- R.Jay Magill, Jr. 1:30pm, CET