World acting too slow to stop Darfur crimes- Annan

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, March 7 (Reuters) – The world is not doing enough to stop the “appalling” crimes of murder and rape in Darfur, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told U.N. Security Council ambassadors.

Sudanese woman refugee arriving from Labado protects herself from the wind at Kalma Camp, near Nyala in Sudan’s South Darfur region 09 January 2005. (AFP)..

Annan, who summoned the 15 Security Council ambassadors to his office, said “all options” on a peacekeeping force were open but at the moment no one was in favour of sending U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur.

He said the United Nations, the United States and the European Union would conduct an “on-the spot” assessment mission in Darfur with the African Union, which has troops there, later this week and make recommendations.

Annan also urged the council to adopt a draft resolution soon on southern Sudan and Darfur after nearly a month of negotiations.

The measure would authorize a 10,000-member peacekeeping mission to southern Sudan, consider travel sanctions and an asset freeze on perpetrators of atrocities in Darfur and decide whether an international court should hear cases of human rights offenders.

“We keep getting reports which show that the killing and raping and burning are still going on,” Annan said in a statement.

“I asked them to come and see me because I am worried that we are not moving fast enough to deal with the appalling situation in Darfur,” Annan said.

At least 70,000 people have been killed between last March and October and 2 million made homeless, mainly by Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, which the United Nations say are armed by the Sudanese government but Khartoum denies it.

The main bulwark against atrocities is an African Union force, expected to reach 3,000 troops and monitors next month,

that needs outside assistance.

STUMBLING BLOCKS

Annan said he had asked if U.N. peacekeepers should help but “clearly everyone’s first preference is for the AU to stay in the lead in Darfur but for the rest of us to give it more effective help, while keeping other options open.”

“We don’t think it would be a good idea to ‘cannibalize’ the U.N. peacekeeping mission (in the south) for the sake of Darfur,” Annan said.

The Khartoum government and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement signed a landmark agreement in January that ended a two-decade-old civil war. But only five percent of the promised assistance has reached the south, thereby endangering the crucial accord,” U.N. officials said.

Jan Egeland, the humanitarian relief coordinator currently touring Sudan said the African Union needed 10,000 troops in Darfur.

“There should as many AU forces as there are humanitarian workers in Darfur,” he told reporters in Khartoum. “The world is only putting an expensive humanitarian plaster on the open wound in Darfur.”

In a revised version of the resolution, obtained by Reuters, all mention of threatened oil sanctions against Sudan is dropped. But a partial arms embargo as well as travel and an assets freeze against perpetrators of atrocities remain in the document. Diplomats said the assets freeze might be deleted to get support from Russia, China and Algeria.

Another stumbling point is where to put those responsible for heinous crimes on trial. Most council members prefer the new International Criminal Court in The Hague, which the United States opposes. China and Algeria are against any referral to an outside court.

The Bush administration has proposed a new U.N.-African Union tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania, which few on the council and elsewhere support.

Algerian ambassador Abdallah Baali told reporters “we are getting closer.” But he said there had to be more compromises on sanctions measures and that the ICC issue may be severed from the main resolution, which diplomats said the United States wanted.