U.S. to back tougher Sudan resolution

WASHINGTON, DC, July 21, 2004 (UPI) — The United States is backing a tougher U.N. resolution against Sudan concerning the crisis in Darfur, a U.S. State Department official said Wednesday.

“Our intention is to strengthen the resolution,” said a department official, who asked not to be identified. “We think that’s what’s called for.”

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is to visit the United Nations Thursday to discuss with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan the situation in the western Sudanese region where more than 1 million people have been displaced and more than 300,000 are likely to die from hunger.

The violence in Darfur pits the government-backed Arab militia Janjaweed against black villages in a campaign the international community has called “ethnic cleansing.” U.S State Department officials are now trying to determine if the violence in Darfur constitutes genocide.

Powell and Annan are attempting to determine “what more they can do to try to get progress on the ground where it really matters for the people who are suffering,” the department official said.