U.N. report cites "lessons" from Sudan attack

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - An internal report on the U.N.mission in Sudan admits "lessons" were learned from the waypeacekeepers behaved during an attack on a disputed oil-richtown in which scores of civilians were killed.

The top U.S. envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson has accusedU.N. peacekeepers in the region, known as UNMIS, of hiding intheir barracks during the fighting in May instead of protectingSudanese civilians in line with their mandate.

One part of the report on UNMIS, seen by Reuters onThursday, says that the United Nations had identified several"lessons" to be taken from an assessment of the actions of theU.N. troops though it left out details of any mistakes made.

"A number of lessons learned were identified to informfuture crisis response and force posture in UNMIS," it said.

U.N. special envoy for Sudan Ashraf Qazi rejectedWilliamson's comments, saying "UNMIS has neither the capacitynor the mandate to militarily intervene."

The violence in Sudan's Abyei region, which straddles theborder between northern and semi-autonomous southern Sudan,killed dozens and forced about 50,000 people from their homes,igniting fears at the time that a new civil war could eruptbetween the north and south.

The new UNMIS report, which followed a U.N. SecurityCouncil demand for an investigation of what happened in Abyeiin May, says "UNMIS sheltered and escorted to safety over 100civilians who took refuge in the UNMIS compound."

But a Reuters reporter who was present at the UNMIScompound at the time of the attack saw things differently.According to the reporter, southern Sudanese soldiers leftaround 100 stranded civilians outside UNMIS' gates.

The reporter said UNMIS initially refused to allow thecivilians inside the compound but the civilians eventuallyforced their way inside once a heavy firefight between northernand southern Sudanese soldiers began.

The U.N. peacekeeping department had no immediate comment.

Several U.N. diplomats told Reuters on condition ofanonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue that they wereconcerned the report on UNMIS' actions during the Abyei attackcould be a "whitewash" -- in other words, an attempt to make itappear as if the Zambian peacekeepers had done nothing wrong.

PROTECTING CIVILIANS

The UNMIS report says a review of the force levels in Abyeiwill be part of a study of the military capabilities of UNMIS.

This is not the first time U.N. peacekeepers have beenaccused of leaving civilians in the lurch. Such allegationswere widely raised about how peacekeepers behaved during theconflicts in Rwanda and the Balkans.

UNMIS is a 10,000-strong U.N. force, whose job it is toensure that the north and south are complying with a 2005 peaceagreement that ended two decades of civil war.

The 2005 peace deal left open the future status of Abyei,but leaders of northern and southern Sudan created a "road map"to defuse conflict and agreed to turn their border dispute overto an international court in The Hague for a final settlement.

According to the UNMIS Web site (www.unmis.org), U.N.peacekeepers in Sudan are authorized to protect civilians underthreat of physical violence "without prejudice to theresponsibility of the Sudanese government."

The report said UNMIS has a mandate to protect civiliansunder threat when possible but "responsibility for respectingthe ceasefire lies squarely with the parties themselves."

Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that tens of thousandsof civilians driven from their homes in Abyei by the fightingin mid-May were still unable to return home two months afterhalf the town was destroyed in fighting.

"Abyei can't wait," the rights group's Selena Brewer said,adding that the force in Abyei at the time of the attack wasinsufficient for a potential flashpoint like it. "UNMIS needsto deploy a much stronger unit there right now."

(Additional reporting by David Lewis in Abyei; Editing byDavid Storey and Eric Beech)