November 4, 2004
United Nations head Kofi Annan has urged the Security Council to take "prompt action" to stop intensifying violence in the Sudan's Darfur region.
The council is meeting on Thursday to consider his envoy's report, which says war crimes appear to be occurring on a "large and systematic scale". A UN commission was set up last month to see if genocide was taking place. Some 1.6 million have fled their homes, with 400,000 needing humanitarian aid, the report says. Pro-government Janjaweed militias are accused of driving the region's black Africans from their villages, since two rebel groups began an uprising in February 2003. The United States has already declared the attacks in Darfur to be genocide.
Carrot and stick
The Security Council adopted a resolution in September which threatened oil sanctions against Sudan if it did not reign in the militias. But UN envoy Jan Pronk's report says security deteriorated and ceasefire violations continue. "Neither side is refraining from conducting attacks against the other or exercising restraint," the report says. Mr Annan said the council "may wish to consider creative and prompt action to ensure effective implementation of the demands set out in it earlier resolutions". John Danforth, US ambassador to the UN, said he did not expect sanctions to be implemented. "It's not so much the stick; it's the carrot," he is quoted by Reuters news agency as saying. The Security Council, due to meet in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi on 17-18 November, is expected to discuss Darfur.
Earlier in the week, the UN sharply criticised the forced removal of a number of refugees from a camps in Darfur, an action, Mr Pronk described as a "flagrant violation of international humanitarian law". Khartoum rebuffed the remarks and defended the relocation, saying the living conditions in the camp were not good enough.
Menacing
The community leader of the 250 families moved from El Geer camp near Nyala told the BBC they were herded onto trucks, beaten by police. He said he fears they will be forced to return to their village, something the government insists will not happen. The UN report warns that without more action being taken against the perpetrators of the violence, displaced people will not go home, Associated Press reports. "Banditry goes from strength to strength, menacing the population and obstructing the delivery of aid to desperate people in isolated areas," the report says.
The report calls on the rebels and government delegations meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja to show a "sense of urgency" in their efforts to secure a peace deal. African Union (AU) negotiators have said that they are hopeful that all parties will soon sign an agreement they have drawn up to resolve the 20-month conflict. A 3,000-strong AU force to monitor the ceasefire is due to be in place by the end of November.
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