China has hailed the United Nations Security Council resolution
1769 which makes official the deployment a UN-African Union (AU)
hybrid peacekeeping force in Sudan's western region of Darfur, and
expects that all parties will aid the implementation of the
resolution, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao on
Thursday.
"This is an important step towards resolving the Darfur issue,
and we hope all parties value the current positive momentum, and
fully take advantage of the multilateral negotiation mechanism to
smoothly implement the resolution," said Liu.
He did warn that the peacekeeping mission is only one aspect of
remedying the Darfur issue, and that the "double track" strategy -
a balanced combination of political process and the peacekeeping
mission -?should be maintained.
Liu called for the international community to help speed up the
political process, improve the humanitarian situation in Darfur and
aid Sudan in kick-starting development there, saying that all these
measures were necessary to realizing lasting peace in Darfur.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt
Resolution 1769, which will set in motion the deployment of a
26,000- strong joint UN-AU peacekeeping force in Darfur.
Under the resolution, co-sponsored by Belgium, Britain, France,
Italy, Peru and Slovakia, the "hybrid operation" in Darfur is
mandated for an initial period of 12 months, and will be comprised
of 19,555 military personnel, up to 3,772 international police and
19 formed police units with up to 2,660 officers.
The resolution also stipulated the hybrid force shall have a
"predominantly African character," which means African troops will
be considered first.
(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2007)
