UN urges support for the AU in Darfur

LONDON, England, Oct 19, 2004 (UPI) — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is supporting African Union efforts to bolster its monitoring and protection presence in Sudan’s trouble Darfur region.

With Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw at a session Tuesday with reporters in London, the secretary-general said every effort was being made to send in the African monitors and protective force. He said, “I think their presence will also make quite a lot of difference.”

Earlier this month, given the planned expansion of the AU’s current 350-strong group of monitors, Annan recommended the AU force be given the power to protect internally displaced people and refugees, monitor the activities of the local police and disarm fighters, including the Janjaweed militias accused of committing most of the attacks against civilians.

“We need to do everything and give the African Union the support to go in there,” the secretary-general said, referring to the security situation. “We should press the parties, the government and the rebels to go back to the table and discuss seriously, in the spirit of compromise, to find a political solution.”