Annan says U.N. action against Sudan possible
By Andrew Hammond
DOHA, June 29 (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday his trip to Sudan this week could lead to Security Council action against Khartoum if it does not act to ease a humanitarian crisis in the western region of Darfur.
“Depending on what we see on the ground, the Council may have to take further steps,” Annan said in response to questions about punitive measures against Sudan. He did not elaborate.
“If that government is not able or willing to do it (protect people in Darfur), the international community has to do something about it,” he told a news conference in the Qatari capital Doha.
Annan declined to set a timetable for Khartoum, but said he would discuss the issue with African leaders during his trip.
Fighting broke out last year in Darfur, which borders Chad, forcing more than one million black Africans to flee their homes and triggering what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Annan said on Friday nations should consider intervening to protect two million people caught in the fighting.
Secretary of State Colin Powell flies to Sudan on Tuesday in the highest-level U.S. visit for over two decades to press Khartoum to allow aid access and stop supporting Arab militia, blamed for driving most of the refugees out of their homes.
U.S. officials said on Friday that Powell will threaten to press for U.N. sanctions against Sudan.
“The government has committed to disarm the militias and protect its people. This is one of the issues I will discuss with them,” Annan said in Doha, adding that the Khartoum government had to give non-governmental organisations access to Darfur and allow humanitarian equipment into the country.
Annan was due to travel to Khartoum on Tuesday for official meetings and then head to a camp in Darfur. After that he flies to neighbouring Chad to meet government leaders and visit a Sudanese refugee camp before returning to Khartoum.
He will also visit the Kenyan capital Nairobi to meet government leaders and negotiators of an agreement between Sudanese leaders and southern rebels.
“We cannot talk of comprehensive peace in Sudan if the gross and systematic abuse of human rights in west Sudan, Darfur, continues,” Annan said.