Sudan fails to protect citizens in Darfur – Annan
Dec 8, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Secretary-General Kofi Annan accused the Sudanese government on Thursday of failing to protect citizens in Darfur from killings, rape and other violence, warning it may be held accountable for those acts in the future.
He said the international community has offered to help.
“But the government has refused to accept that help,” he said.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir fiercely opposed a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in August that called for more than 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers to replace the overwhelmed African Union force in Darfur, which has been unable to stop escalating violence.
Last month, al-Bashir agreed in principle to allow a “hybrid” AU-U.N. operation, though he later reiterated his opposition to U.N. troops in Darfur. He has hinted he is trying to find a middle ground with the U.N. on how the peacekeepers could support the 7,000-strong AU force.
The agreement was aimed at breaking a diplomatic deadlock over an increased international role in solving the crisis in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced by three years of fighting between rebels and government forces.
Asked Thursday whether he was worried about the image of the U.N. failing to protect civilians in Darfur, Annan replied, “I think the question here is, ‘Who has failed?”‘
“I think the responsibility to protect the citizens is the responsibility of the government in Khartoum,” he said. “The government patently has not been able to do that, given all the difficulties we see in Darfur – the killings, the rape, the destruction – and the international community has offered to go in to help them, but the government has refused to accept that help.”
“The failure of the government to accept that help is … placing the government in a very difficult situation. In time they may have to answer collectively and individually for what is happening in Darfur,” Annan warned.
Sudanese officials have said they would allow the U.N. to provide financial and logistical support to the AU force on the ground in Darfur.
Annan said a U.N. team was in Ethiopia looking at ways to beef up the AU force. But he said the Security Council will only pick up the cost if it believes the U.N. can provide “a workable, effective force that will bring some measure of security” to Darfur and revive the peace process.
In a farewell speech on Monday to the Security Council, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland accused world leaders of failing to live up to a pledge made at a U.N. summit in September 2005 to protect civilians caught in armed conflict from genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
He said the Darfur crisis has spread into neighboring Chad and Central African Republic and was now in a “free fall,” with 6 million people facing the prospect of going without food or protection.
(AP)