Darfur crisis reflects lack of political will by UN members – Annan aide

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2005 (AP) — A top aide to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan reflects a lack of political will by U.N. member states.

A displaced Sudanese man looks at his destroyed house after militiamen burnt the Sereaf village, in west Darfur along the Sudan and Chad border, April 22, 2005. (Reuters).

“Everybody wants to stop Darfur (from) happening. Nobody wants to put their own troops in harm’s way,” Mark Malloch Brown, Annan’s chief of staff, told the House International Relations Committee on Wednesday. The panel is pushing for reforms at the United Nations in light of recent scandals.

Malloch Brown told the panel that “all this talk we’ve had of U.N. reform will ultimately amount to nothing if Darfur happens on our watch,” he said.

He showed lawmakers that he and senior colleagues wear green wristbands that say “Not on my watch. Save Darfur.”

The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 after rebels took up arms, complaining of discrimination by Sudan ‘s Arab-dominated government. The government is accused of responding by backing a scorched-earth counterinsurgency by Arab militias.

An estimated 180,000 people have died and about 2 million have been displaced since the conflict began in February 2003.

Malloch Brown said the African peacekeeping force in Sudan is too small and under-funded. He said the U.N. was hoping for strong U.S. support at a donor’s conference next week in Ethiopia.

He said pressure must be intensified on both the Sudanese government and rebels. That pressure must come public opinion in the United States and elsewhere.

“This is not something that the Security Council will do in isolation,” he said.