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| Africa: Horn |
| Darfur Increasingly Unstable, U.N. Envoy Warns |
| 2004-11-05 |
| Darfur - a shining example of multilateralism at work. I think the USA is correct in leaving this to the UN to see how it can handle a crisis. Remarkably bleak assesment of the situation. So far the UN multilateralists are well on their way to the biggest humanitarium dsaster of recent times. The United Nations' special envoy to Sudan told the Security Council on Thursday that Darfur is sliding into anarchy as government and rebel forces battle over control of the territory. The U.N. official, Jan Pronk of the Netherlands, said that U.S.-supported plans to send 3,300 African troops to halt the violence in the Darfur region are inadequate and that more than twice that number is needed to restore calm. Pronk said that the Sudanese government is losing control of the Arab militias it equipped and recruited last year to counter black rebel forces and their kin, and that the militias have killed thousands and forced more than 1.8 million from their homes. But he blamed the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army for stirring up the latest round of violence by stepping up attacks against local police and robbing Arab traders of their camels, which are vital to Arab tribes. "They are provoking the militia to attack," he said in an interview after the meeting. Pronk appealed to the 15-nation council to increase pressure on Khartoum and Darfur's rebels to strike a political deal ending the violence at a rare council meeting in Nairobi scheduled for Nov. 18-19. The meeting is being organized by John C. Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to encourage Khartoum to sign an agreement with a separate rebel force it has been battling in another part of Sudan for more than two decades. Danforth hopes that such an accord will help lead to a peace deal in Darfur. "I am afraid the situation in Darfur may become unmanageable unless more efforts are made, both at the negotiation table and on the ground," Pronk told the council. "Darfur may easily enter a state of anarchy -- a total collapse of law and order. We may soon find that Darfur is ruled by warlords." |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #4 then why want the UN do something about it? oh yeah because they know we are not gonna foot the bill this time |
| Posted by: smokeysinse 2004-11-05 4:09:58 PM |
| #3 ...the Sudanese government is losing control of the Arab militias it equipped and recruited last year to counter black rebel forces and their kin... More like the gov't is holding its hands behind its back and staring off into space. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2004-11-05 1:54:20 PM |
| #2 I think the USA is correct in leaving this to the UN to see how it can handle a crisis. I agree, sort of. Seems like an awful lot of people being killed just to make a point that the UN is a weak, corrupt, useless organization. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-11-05 10:10:44 AM |
| #1 France and German need to step up to the plate. I won't hold my breath. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-11-05 1:54:20 AM |