World must act now in Darfur: Annan

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 21 (AFP) — UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said that an international probe into the bloodshed in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region should not delay efforts to bring an immediate end to the violence.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Saturday that called on Annan to set up an international commission to investigate charges of human rights violations in Darfur and determine whether acts of genocide had taken place.

“I shall do so with all speed,” Annan told the UN General Assembly.

“But let no one treat this as a respite, during which events in that devastated region continue to take their course” he said. “Regardless of their legal definition, things are happening there which must shock the conscience of every human being.”

An estimated 50,000 people have died and 1.4 million more have been displaced in Darfur, where UN officials say Arab militias have carried out a scorched-earth campaign of ethnic cleansing against black residents.

Annan said it was important for the international community to recognise the “limitations” of the African Union which has taken the lead in providing a protective force in Darfur and in seeking a political settlement.

“We must give it every possible support,” Annan said.

“Let no one imagine that this affair concerns Africans only. The victims are human beings, whose human rights must be sacred to all of all.

“We all have a duty to do whatever we can to rescue them, and do it now,” he said.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, was dispatched to Sudan on Saturday for a week-long fact-finding mission to decide what further measures can be taken to curb abuses in Darfur and ease the suffering there.

The UN resolution passed at the weekend threatened possible sanctions against Sudan’s oil industry unless the Khartoum government meets its commitment to restore security to Darfur.