UN:The UN Security Council last night voted unanimously to authorise up to 26,000 soldiers and police for Sudan's Darfur region, in an effort to stop attacks on millions of displaced civilians.
Britain and France had distributed a fourth revised text late on Monday to be sent to governments of the 15 council members. The vote last night agreed on a combined or "hybrid" United Nations-African Union force, diplomats said.
Estimated to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the operation is an effort to quell violence in Sudan's western region, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven from their homes and an estimated 200,000 have died over the last four years.
Parts of the resolution are under chapter seven of the UN Charter, which makes it mandatory. This includes taking "necessary action", a euphemism for the use of force, in self-defence of UN-AU personnel, to ensure freedom of movement of humanitarian workers as well as to protect civilians "under threat of violence without prejudice to the government's responsibilities".
China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, who had qualms about the use of force in chapter seven, has agreed this provision is needed but "we have to be precise and very careful where it is applied". He said Beijing generally approved the new text.
Sponsors of the draft, Britain and France, spoke to Sudanese diplomats about the draft to get agreement from Khartoum. Deleted from earlier texts was the right to "seizure and disposal" of illegal arms in violation of earlier agreements. Now the force is to "monitor" such weapons.
Specifically, the text would authorise no more than 19,555 military personnel and 6,432 civilian police. The resolution calls on member states to finalise their contributions to the force, called Unamid or the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, within 90 days.