Libya differs with Kofi Annan over Darfur

TRIPOLI, Libya, Mar 10, 2005 (PANA) — Libya bitterly criticised UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan on Wednesday for suggesting that an international force be sent to Darfur, where the situation is horrible and dangerous.

“Through his statement, Annan gives the expression of trying to undermine the African efforts intended to settle the Darfur crisis,” the Libyan Foreign Affairs Committee said in a statement.

“They are also prejudicial to efforts by Nigerian President and AU current Chair Olusegun Obasanjo, and those of Moammar Kadhafi who were entrusted with the issue by the five African-country (Nigeria, Egypt, Chad, Libya and Sudan) summit and the African Union Commission,” the statement observed.

The Libyan Foreign Committee says that Annan’s comments are “a breach to Abuja meetings on Darfur and efforts, which are being made to hold the second session of the five African-country summit on that province in southern Sudan”.

It accuses Annan of attempting to “block the African efforts
aimed to settle the crisis.”