Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged Sudan's president to act immediately to end the crisis in his country's western Darfur region, where fighting has displaced about 1 million people and killed thousands, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday. In a letter, Annan asked President Omar el-Bashir to maintain a humanitarian cease-fire, disarm militias, and allow humanitarian workers and African Union observers to quickly deploy throughout Darfur, associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
| "Else I shall send you a strongly worded letter." |
The letter, sent Wednesday, was not made public. But Dujarric said it asked el-Bashir to follow up on concerns raised at a U.N. Security Council meeting last Friday by the acting U.N. human rights chief, Bertrand Ramcharan, and the head of the U.N. World Food Program, James Morris, who recently returned from a visit to Darfur. Ramcharan told the council that Sudanese forces were helping Arab militias drive black Africans out of the region. But he stopped short of blaming the government for what he described as widespread atrocities and "repeated war crimes and crimes against humanity" in the region.
| That would have forced him to mention Rwanda, and that's rather painful for Kofi. |
U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland and human rights groups have denounced what they called a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in Darfur - a claim denied by the Sudanese government.
The Security Council put Sudan on its agenda last month. Diplomats said council members want to give the Sudanese government time to finish negotiating an agreement with rebels in the south, but would not rule out sanctions or even deploying an international force if the situation in Darfur doesn't improve.
| "Send for the mighty Uruguayans!" |
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