Bush urges Sudan to allow UN Darfur mission

July 20, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — President George W. Bush called on Sudan on Thursday to allow a United Nations peacekeeping presence to help stem the violence in Darfur.

Tens of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million people forced into camps during three years of rape, murder and pillage in Darfur in lawless western Sudan.

The United States, the European Union and the United Nations are pressing Sudan to allow a U.N. mission to replace an ill-equipped African Union force. Khartoum had repeatedly rejected that, likening it to a Western invasion.

“Our strategy is that we want A.U. forces to be complemented and blue-helmeted. In other words, the United Nations should be invited in,” Bush told reporters after a meeting with Salva Kiir, vice president of Sudan.

The conflict in Darfur erupted in 2003 when mostly non-Arab tribes took up arms, accusing the Arab-dominated government of neglect. Khartoum retaliated by arming mainly Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, who began a campaign of violence.

In the meeting with Kiir, Bush also pledged U.S. help in implementing the peace deal that ended southern Sudan’s war.

Kiir became Sudan’s first vice president last year under a deal between the north’s ruling National Congress Party and former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement to end more than two decades of fighting.

(Reuters)