UN welcomes Sudanese agreement on heavy support package

The UN Security Council welcomed on Monday Sudan's announcement confirming that it accepts the full "Heavy Support Package" which the United Nations will provide to the African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in the violence-wracked Darfur region.

In a press statement released after hearing briefing from AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, the council called on the Sudanese government to facilitate the immediate deployment of the package, adding that it is writing to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to enable him to request funding for the package from the General Assemble.

The council also stressed that "there can be no military solution to the crisis in Darfur," and called for an immediate cease-fire, a reinvigorated political process, an improvement in the humanitarian situation and the deployment of an effective AU- UN Hybrid operation.

Earlier Monday, the UN chief received a letter from Sudan's UN ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem that confirmed Sudan's approval of "the helicopters component" of the heavy support package for the AU force.

The UN, the AU and the Sudanese government agreed in November last year on the three-phase support plan which was also known as the Annan plan as it was put forward by then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

With the first phase of the plan, a light support package already underway, the three parties reached an agreement in principle in Addis Ababa on April 9 to inaugurate the second phase of a UN support plan for the AU mission in Darfur, known as "the heavy support phase."

But the Sudanese government's opposition for the deployment of attack helicopters in Darfur had blocked the scheduled implementation of the second phase.

Source: Xinhua