New Zealand could send peace monitors to Sudan – official

WELLINGTON, July 26, 2004 (AP) — New Zealand would be willing to send a few peacekeepers to the strife-torn African nation of Sudan if asked by the U.N., and may boost its humanitarian aid for the country’s refugees, the foreign minister said Monday.

Up to 30,000 people, most of them black Africans, have been killed in Sudan ‘s Darfur region in violence mostly blamed on Arab militias, and more than 1 million people have fled their homes. Some 2.2 million are in urgent need of food or medical attention.

“That’s a catastrophe of huge dimensions,” Foreign Minister Phil Goff told National Radio.

New Zealand already has pledged NZ$3 million this year for humanitarian aid groups working in Sudan , and Goff said his government might give more.

The U.N. has warned Sudan ‘s government to make progress in apprehending marauding gangs of Arab Janjaweed militia, and is considering sanctions against the northern African nation.

New Zealand and Australia are “hoping the Sudanese government will take decisive action to restrain the activities of…the Janjaweed, rather than giving implicit support to it,” Goff said.

Australia said Sunday it was likely to send troops to support a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Sunday, and Goff said New Zealand also could contribute.

“We’re probably talking…single figures rather than double or treble figures…a number of people who would act as monitors,” he said.
The U.N. had approached Australia to contribute to the force, expected to be in place by the end of 2004. The U.N. Security Council has yet to pass a resolution creating the force.