UN Security Council may act on Sudan next week – Annan

NEW YORK, UN, Sep 7, 2004 (PANA) — The UN Security Council could take action
on the crisis engulfing the Darfur region of Sudan within the
next week, Secretary-General Kofi Annan disclosed here Tuesday.

He stressed that “more can and should be done” to improve
security in the war-torn region and urged international support
for the African monitors deployed there.

Annan was speaking to reporters on arrival at UN Headquarters,
where he had separate meetings with a former Sudanese Prime
Minister and a rebel leader.

While recalling that in a report to the Council last week he had
noted an improvement in granting humanitarian access to Darfur,
he warned that security problems persist.

Khartoum “must re-double its efforts to protect the population”
of an estimated 1.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs),
he said.

“Obviously the situation on the ground could be better. We are
not satisfied with the security front. We believe that more can
and should be done,” he added.

Annan said the Council should expand the size of the force of
African Union (AU) monitors from its original “woefully
inadequate” number to better protect the IDPs and to restore
security.

“I hope the international community will support them [the AU
monitoring force] financially, logistically and also in other
ways.”

In his report to the Council, he said the notorious Janjaweed
militias have conducted a “scorched-earth policy” against
Darfur’s civilians since conflict began there early last year
when two rebel groups took up arms against the Khartoum
government.

Annan said most of the militias have not been disarmed and
continue to carry out attacks, killing, raping and assaulting
villagers and generally traumatising the inhabitants.

He had met with El Sadiq El Mahdi, former Sudanese Prime
Minister, and John Garang, leader of the Sudan People’s
Liberation Movement (SPLM), on the situation in Darfur and peace
talks taking place in Naivasha, Kenya, to end the separate civil
war in the country’s south.

UN spokesperson Marie Okabe said Garang and Annan discussed the
need to intensify efforts to resolve the Darfur crisis and to
complete the Naivasha talks.

El Mahdi stressed the importance of the international community,
especially the Security Council, remaining engaged over Darfur
and to pressurise all sides to fulfil their commitments.