UN’s Annan: not satisfied with Sudan ‘s effort In Darfur
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 7, 2004 (AP) — Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday he is not satisfied with the Sudanese government’s efforts to provide security in the conflict-ridden western Darfur region and called on Khartoum to redouble its efforts to protect the population.
Annan said he expects the U.N. Security Council to take action within the next week on his report which urged the government to accept a greatly expanded international monitoring force to help prevent escalating militia attacks in Darfur.
U.S. deputy ambassador Stuart Holliday said the United States is working on a draft resolution and expects to introduce it in the council on Wednesday “and then obviously have a discussion after that.” He refused to provide any details.
The African Union currently has about 80 military observers in Darfur, protected by just over 300 soldiers, monitoring a rarely observed cease-fire signed in April. The top U.N. envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, said last week that more than 3,000 troops were needed.
Annan urged the international community to support an expanded African Union force financially and logistically.
He was asked to comment on reports of new violence in the Darfur region, where Arab militias have been accused of attacking local villagers, killing up to 30,000 people and forcing over 1.2 million to flee their homes in what the United Nations says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“While we have greater access on the humanitarian front a lot needs to be done on the security front, and … the government must redouble its efforts to protect the population,” Annan told reporters.
“Obviously the situation on the ground could be better,” he said. “We are not satisfied with the security front. We believe more can and should be done.”
The secretary-general spoke to reporters before meeting separately with former Sudanese prime minister Sadiq El Mahdi and John Garang, leader of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, which is a key party in negotiations to end the 21-year civil war in southern Sudan.
U.N. associate spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Annan and Garang discussed prospects for completing negotiations to end the southern rebellion. Both sides agreed on the need to intensify efforts to reach a peace agreement in the south and to seek a solution to the Darfur crisis, she said.
In Annan’s talks with El Mahdi, the former prime minister encouraged the Security Council to remain engaged and emphasized the need to continue to put pressure on the parties to fulfill their commitments, Okabe said.
Annan told reporters that all parties need “to press ahead on both fronts and make progress as they can.”
“I think they are so far advanced on the southern process that they should be able to make progress,” he said.
“What is important is that the government adopt a strategic approach for bringing peace to the whole of Sudan, and that means between the north and the south and the situation in the west, and whichever is ready to be concluded, they should go and conclude it. One should not wait for the other to come onstream,” Annan said.