By Louis Charbonneau
EL FASHER, Sudan (Reuters) - Diplomats from the U.N.Security Council flew into Sudan's western Darfur region onThursday to see the effects of five years of conflict and whatcan be done to end it.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court waslater due to present a report to the Security Council that willmake clear he wants to pursue senior officials for war crimesin Darfur, infuriating the government in Khartoum.
On the fifth day of a 10-day tour of African hotspots, the15-nation council arrived in El Fasher, the capital of NorthDarfur state, where a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping missionin Darfur (UNAMID) is based.
"We really have to see how the people of Darfur live,"South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo told reporters.
The delegations will meet the local governor, displacedpeople, peacekeepers and aid workers trying to alleviate one ofthe world's worst humanitarian crises before returning toKhartoum for talks with Sudan's President Omar Hassanal-Bashir.
Experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5million have been forced from their homes in five years ofethnic and political conflict in Darfur. Khartoum says only10,000 people have been killed.
Bashir has been under pressure to allow a quickerdeployment of UNAMID, which is to reach 26,000 troops andpolice at full strength. There are still only around 9,000peacekeepers on the ground in Darfur, a region roughly the sizeof France.
The joint AU-U.N. special representative for Darfur,Rodolphe Adada told reporters there was growing pressure to getmore peacekeepers on the ground. "If we wait any longer, wemight not be able to maintain the most important capital forany peacekeeper -- the local trust."
BETTER ATMOSPHERE
Khartoum confirmed on Wednesday that Thai and Nepalesebattalions could deploy in Darfur once Egyptian and Ethiopiantroops had deployed.
Britain's U.N. Ambassador John Sawers told reporters therehad been "an improvement in the atmosphere for cooperation"between Sudan and the joint U.N./African Union mission, butadded the council gave Sudanese officials a list of a dozenimprovements needed in Darfur, such as speeding up deploymentof peacekeepers and improving access for aid workers.
In a sign of worsening relations between Khartoum andWashington, Sudan said it was banning U.S. companies fromworking with UNAMID and would not renew an engineering contractheld by a unit of U.S. defence firm Lockheed Martin Corp.
The United States, which has had sanctions on Sudan forover a decade, suspended talks on normalising ties this weekover the failure of Sudan's north and south to agree on endingclashes that have stoked fears of a return to north-south civilwar.
Khartoum is also angered by the U.S. use of the word"genocide" to describe the situation in Darfur.
Sudan on Wednesday accused International Criminal CourtProsecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of wrecking peace efforts inDarfur by trying to pursue officials accused of war crimes inDarfur.
The prosecutor is due to deliver a report to the SecurityCouncil on Thursday. He said last week he would open a caseagainst senior members of the government because Khartoum hasfailed to arrest a minister he indicted over crimes in Darfur.
The Hague based court issued arrest warrants for twoSudanese suspects in April last year, but Khartoum has refusedto hand them over.
Sudanese officials have said they would not cooperate withthe court, prompting French envoy Jean-Maurice Ripert tosuggest that Paris might support "further steps" againstKhartoum by the council -- meaning sanctions. He did notelaborate.
(Editing by Andrew Heavens)
