EU parliament urges UN Security Council meeting on Darfur

April 6, 2006 (STRASBOURG) — The European Parliament called Thursday for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council to address violence in Sudan’s Darfur region, which it said was “tantamount to genocide.”

EU lawmakers voted unanimously to urge the 25 EU governments, the United States and other countries to enforce sanctions against those who obstruct the deployment of a U.N. force in Darfur.

The EU, U.S. and African officials have been urging Sudan to allow a large U.N. peacekeeping force to replace the current African Union mission in Darfur.

In a resolution, EU deputies called on Sudan to facilitate the issuing of visas and travel permits to humanitarian workers and stop the harassment of aid agencies.

The United Nations has described Darfur as the site of the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis.

The three-year-old conflict, setting the Arab-dominated government and militias against ethnic African tribes, has left some 180,000 dead — most from disease and hunger — and displaced another 2 million people from their homes.

(ST/AP)