US urges swift action to protect Darfur population
March 2, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The State Department called Friday on the Sudanese government and the United Nations to remove quickly obstacles to the deployment of some 22,000 international peacekeeping forces to Sudan’s Darfur region.
Spokesman Sean McCormack issued the appeal as U.S. presidential envoy Andrew Natsios was preparing a 10-day visit to Sudan that will include stops in Darfur and southern Sudan in addition to Khartoum, the capital.
The United States has been frustrated by the slow movement toward deployment of a hybrid U.N.-African Union force in Sudan, which was approved late last year to protect Darfurian victims of civil strife. More than 2.5 million have been uprooted from their homes.
“We are pushing on the Sudanese — we as well as others — to make sure that those forces are able to deploy in the areas that they need to deploy to and push on the Sudanese to do everything that they can to stop the violence,” McCormack said.
More than two months have passed since Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir promised former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in writing that he would permit deployment of the hybrid force.
But McCormack said the U.S. administration is not satisfied with the yearlong U.N. time frame for deployment.
“The timeline needs to be reduced,” McCormack said. “This is too critical a humanitarian issue.”
He added that not enough countries are pledging troops for the Darfur mission.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed this week for nations to provide “urgent contributions of human resources and equipment” for Darfur.
The first phase of the deployment plan, nearly complete, involves the stationing of a small U.N.-military civilian group in Darfur. The second phase would dispatch more than 3,000 U.N. troops, who would set the stage for the arrival of the full AU-U.N. force.
Al-Bashir has sent mixed signals about his intentions. He gave a green light to the deployment plan in December but said in February that U.N. troops were not required in Darfur because the 7,000-member AU force already there could maintain order.
(AP)