UN envoy says deaths in Darfur underestimated

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, March 10 (Reuters) – A senior U.N. envoy said on Wednesday that far more people had died in Sudan’s Darfur region than the 70,000 previously estimated and chastised African nations for not sending enough peacekeepers.

An internally displaced person in South Darfur is treated for a bullet wound to his chest after being shot by Janjaweed militia. His family members surround him in a hospital in South Darfur, October 2004. (HRW).

Jan Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator, who just visited Darfur and other parts of Sudan, said it was impossible to estimate the number of deaths from killings or disease because “it is where we are not that there are attacks.”

Egeland said the old figure of 70,000 dead from last March to the late summer was unhelpful. “Is it three times that? Is it five times that? I don’t know but it is several times the number of the 70,000 that have died altogether,” he said.

Darfur in Sudan’s west has been in conflict for more than two years with rebel groups fighting the government for more power and resources. In response Khartoum armed militia, some of whom have conducted a scorched earth campaign against African villagers, raping and killing them.

“If you move beyond the camps, the killing continues,” Egeland said. “Women are systematically abused and raped.

“I told the government at the highest levels that there was a situation totally out of control and is not being stopped,” he said.

The main bulwark against atrocities is an African Union monitoring force of some 2,000 troops, who Egeland called “courageous” in stopping atrocities.

But he asked why it took 10 months to get such a small number on the ground when there were 10,000 humanitarian workers in Darfur.

“And those (troops) could have been there last summer if we had been able to deploy tsunami-style,” he told a news conference. “There are many countries in Africa that could give more forces, quicker. What we need is more forces on the ground.”

The United Nations, United States and European Union are sending an assessment mission to Darfur, but some envoys have complained that they have offered the African Union assistance but have not been told specifically what was needed.

DESPERATE NEED FOR AID

In southern Sudan, Egeland said humanitarian relief was desperately needed for hundreds of refugees returning home after a landmark peace agreement in January that ended 21 years of civil war.

U.N. agencies asked for $564 million and received only $51 million in humanitarian aid. A conference is planned next month for long-term reconstruction help in the south.

“If we do not get money to receive hundreds of thousands of returnees … peace will not succeed” and child soldiers would pick up guns again, Egeland said.

Asked about a U.S.-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution on Sudan, Egeland said he was in favor of imposing sanctions on perpetrators of atrocities because “people are getting away with mass murder.”

The resolution authorizes a 10,000-member peacekeeping force in the south and calls for a partial arms embargo as well as travel and an assets freeze against those guilty of gross human rights abuses. But Russia, China and Algeria still object to sanctions.

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 Tanzania, which few support.

The section of the resolution on justice may be removed and negotiated later so that the peacekeeping force is authorized, perhaps as early as this week, diplomats said.