Bush urges UN to ‘get moving’ on Darfur

October 30, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — US President George W. Bush called on the United Nations Tuesday to “get moving” on deploying a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force to help end “genocide” in Sudan’s Darfur province.

Bush told visiting Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that he had discussed the conflict with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and urged him to “get moving those troops into the Darfur region as quickly as possible.”

The US president also stressed that “it’s important to continue putting the pressure on the respective parties to come up with an agreement that will help end the genocide” in Darfur.

“And of course we discussed about the peace between — the agreement between south and north of Sudan, and our desire is to make sure we implement that agreement,” Bush said as he met with Museveni in the Oval Office.

UN and African Union officials are to travel to Darfur this week to try to convince key rebel leaders to join peace talks aimed at resolving the crisis in the Sudanese region, the AU said Monday.

United Nations and AU special envoys, meanwhile, held closed-door meetings with the Sudanese government delegation to the talks, which opened without the main rebel groups on Saturday in the Liyban resort of Sirte, 600 kilometers (370 miles) east of the capital Tripoli.

(AFP)