Annan to meet Powell in Sudan, press government on Darfur
UNITED NATIONS, June 25 (AFP) — UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Friday he would meet US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Sudan next week to press the government over the situation in Darfur.
He said they would be “collectively putting pressure” on Khartoum over the crisis in the strife-torn western region, where pro-government militias are carrying out a campaign that UN officials say amounts to ethnic cleansing.
“The people of Darfur are suffering a catastrophe,” Annan told a press conference at UN headquarters in New York. “Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake.”
He said nations should be ready to take action in Sudan if the government of President Omar al-Beshir could not safeguard the people of Darfur.
“If the Sudanese government doesn’t have the capacity to protect its population, the international community must be prepared to assist,” Annan said.
“The most sacred responsibility of any government is to protect its people against the kind of crimes that have been committed in Darfur.”
Khartoum is under mounting global pressure to rein in the pro-government Arab militias behind the violent campaign.
But in an interview published Thursday, Beshir lashed out at foreigners trying to “intervene in Sudanese affairs” and denied that humanitarian workers and relief supplies had been blocked from getting to Darfur.
A UN human rights report released last month accused the Sudanese government of committing massive human rights violations in the region, where at least 10,000 people have been killed.
Another one million have been displaced and at least 120,000 refugees have poured into neighbouring Chad. According to the United Nations, many of them are afraid to return for fear that the militias will kill them.
Fighting broke out in Darfur in February 2003, when black African rebel groups — complaining that their region was marginalised and that local people were poorly protected — rose up against the Khartoum government.
The government’s response was to give an Arab militia, the Janjawid, a largely free hand in cracking down on the rebels.
Senior US officials said Thursday there was evidence that the situation amounted to genocide, a question which Annan said was of secondary importance.
“The issue is not to discuss what name to give it,” he said. “We should act now and stop arguing about which label to put on it.”
Annan said the Darfur crisis was also a threat to the peace process attempting to end the long-running civil war between the country’s north and south, and stressed the importance of getting aid to Darfur quickly.
“On the humanitarian side, the needs are massive. As so often, the initial response was too slow, partly because of the severe restrictions on access,” he said.