Envoy Says Sudan Doesn’t Want U.N. Force in Darfur – 3/01/2006, New York Times
Sudan has withdrawn its support for a United Nations peacekeeping force to replace African Union troops now in the conflicted Darfur region and is lobbying other countries to help discourage the substitution, Jan Pronk, the United Nations envoy for Sudan, said today. “The government is taking a very strong position against a transition to the U.N., and that is new,” Mr. Pronk said. “Sudan has sent delegations to many countries in the world in order to plead its case let the A.U. stay and let the U.N. not come.” In another move indicating a further stall in the international effort to curb violence in Darfur, John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador, conceded the failure of an American effort to produce a resolution on a United Nations mission to Sudan by the end of February, when the United States occupied the Security Council presidency.