UK backs US on Darfur, hopes for UN Security Council resolution
May 30, 2007 (LUNGI, Sierra Leone) — The U.S. attempt to draft a U.N. Security Council resolution on Darfur has the U.K.’s backing, an official said Wednesday.
The U.K. “fully supports U.S. efforts to address the desperate situation in Darfur in the Security Council,” a spokesman for U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said on condition of anonymity in line with U.K. government policy. “We hope that all members of the (Security Council) will work with the U.S. to create a resolution which will effectively address the challenges in Darfur.”
The official spoke in Sierra Leone, where Blair was expected later Wednesday on a tour of Africa. Aides had said Blair’s agenda on a trip that started Tuesday in Libya and ends later this week in South Africa included trying to build support for action to stop the violence in Darfur.
Tuesday, U.S. President George W. Bush ordered new U.S. economic sanctions on Sudan and directed his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, to draft a proposed U.N. resolution to strengthen international pressure.
The U.S. Mission to the U.N. has already drafted a resolution, a Security Council diplomat said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
After years of low-level skirmishes over water and other resources among Darfur’s tribes, the conflict erupted in earnest in 2003 when members of the region’s ethnic African tribes rebelled against what they considered decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated central government. Sudanese leaders are accused of retaliating by unleashing Arab militia to put down the rebels and destroy any support they might have among African villagers. The government denies the charges and has repeatedly resisted international efforts to intervene in the region.
The fighting in Darfur has displaced 2.5 million people, creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
(AP)