Security Council agrees on Sudan resolution

NAIROBI, Nov 18 (AFP) — The United Nations Security Council on Thursday agreed on the text of a resolution aimed at restoring peace to Sudan, Council President John Danforth announced.

General view of the United Nations Security Council meeting in Nairobi, November 18, 2004. (Reuters).

“We just finished a discussion of the the draft resolution and all 15 members of the council are in agreement so it will be adopted tomorrow,” Danforth told reporters after the first day of a special session of the Council in Nairobi.

“I think it is a good balanced resolution…It is one that clearly recognises the tragedy of Darfur and the fact that we have already passed two resolutions on this subject,” he added.

Earlier resolutions carried the threat of sanctions against Khartoum if it failed to rein in militias widely accused of committing flagrant human rights abuses in Darfur, a western region of Sudan where rebels rose up in February 2003.

The United Nations describes the situation in Darfur as the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and some 1.6 driven from their homes.

Danforth explained that the main thrust of this new resolution and the reason for the rare Council meeting outside of New York, was to pressure Khartoum and a separate rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, to cap two years of talks in the Kenyan town of Naivasha, with a comprehensive accord to end their 21-year-old war.

“It is a resolution that is based on the belief that is almost universally accepted that the resolution of Naivasha is critical to the resolution of Darfur,” said Darfur.

“Just as the previous resolutions painted a picture of what would happen if there is no answer in Darfur so this resolution paints a positive picture of what the parties could accomplish for their country if they bring peace to Sudan,” he said.

The resolution exhorts the international community to help in the reconstruction of a post-war Sudan.