Annan at AU denounces “horrific” Darfur violence
By William Maclean
ADDIS ABABA, July 6 (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan pressed African leaders to back peace in Darfur, saying the crisis threatened to spread instability beyond Sudan’s borders if attacks on civilians were not stopped.
Speaking at an African Union summit, Annan told about 30 heads of state that conflicts including the crisis in western Sudan were holding back the 53-member union’s struggle to defeat poverty and hunger on the continent of 830 million.
“The vision you are working so hard to achieve is imperilled by the persistence of deadly conflict. I am thinking of the horrific situation in Darfur,” said Annan, who last week visited the region where more than a million people have been uprooted by conflict.
“The ruined villages, the camps overflowing with sick and hungry women and children, the fear in the eyes of the people, should be a clear warning to us all — without action, the brutalities already inflicted on the civilian population of Darfur could be a prelude to even greater humanitarian catastrophe — a catastrophe that could destabilise the region.”
The Darfur crisis is seen by analysts and diplomats as a major test for the two-year-old AU, which is trying to win increased Western investment in return for ending wars and despotism and curbing corruption.
The AU is preparing to send hundreds of Nigerian and Rwandan troops to Darfur to guard an eventual 60 AU peace monitors as well as to patrol refugee camps and border areas between Sudan and Chad, where some 200,000 Sudanese have fled to safety from attacks by Arab militias.
DARFUR RESOLUTION?
Sudan reluctantly agreed to the deployment.
“As long as this is a will and the decision of the (AU) commission to take protection forces for the monitors, we are not going to block it,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told Reuters.
“(Though) we’d prefer not to take this step now.”
The AU has already sent unarmed observers to Darfur.
The summit was considering a resolution on Darfur voicing grave concern about human rights violations “by the Janjaweed militias” and the potential for regional instability.
“This is good news for the Africa Union because for the first time you have people starting to point fingers,” said Jakkie Cilliers, a South African analyst.
Khartoum has agreed to attend AU-mediated negotiations on Darfur in Ethiopia this month and would “cooperate fully with the African Union”.
But despite pressure from the AU, the United Nations and the United States, the path to peace in Darfur looks uncertain with two rebel groups saying they would not negotiate unless Sudan first disarmed the marauding Arab militias known as the Janjaweed and respected a shaky ceasefire agreed in April.
“The racial element is very dangerous and has far reaching implications for the rest of Africa,” a senior AU official said. “For the sake of the credibility of the AU it needs to make the Sudanese government act.”
AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare told the opening session of the July 6-8 summit that war and instability had created a tragic situation on much of the continent, which has seen 186 coups d’etat and 26 major wars in the past 50 years.
He said Africa was inching towards U.N. development targets meant to be achieved by 2015, adding that at this rate primary schooling would be provided for all children only in 2129.
Annan urged leaders to become better democrats, saying good governance was a pillar of economic development and human rights
Veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, normally a fixture at the summits, was absent without explanation.