| First say "pretty please," then grovel. Than stand on your head and spit quarters. |
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan tried on Sunday to persuade Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir to reverse what he calls his "incomprehensible" opposition to a U.N. force to stop heavy bloodshed in Darfur. Annan, who officials said was meeting Bashir on the fringes of an African Union summit, said on Saturday that Darfur was "one of the worst nightmares in recent history." No details were immediately available of the meeting. The summit in Gambia's steamy seaside capital has been dominated by the intractable Darfur crisis and rising tension in Somalia after Islamist forces conquered Mogadishu. AU Commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said at the summit opening that the 53-nation pan-African body must take urgent action to deal with the two conflicts. Annan and the AU hope to persuade Bashir to allow a strong U.N. force to take over peacekeeping duties at the end of September from an overstretched, under-resourced African force which has been unable to stem the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Annan fails to persuade Sudan to accept U.N. force
| Another success for Hizzexcellency... |
African leaders agreed on Sunday to extend their military mission in Darfur, after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan failed to persuade Sudan to allow in international peacekeepers to try to end years of bloodshed. But Annan said he expected a U.N. peacekeeping force, widely seen as the only way to end a crisis in which tens of thousands have died, to be deployed eventually.| I don't. More importantly, Omar doesn't... |
AU chairman Denis Sassou Nguesso told reporters after the two-day summit ended: "On the request of the secretary general, the African Union will continue to fulfil its mission until the end of the year." The AU had wanted to pull its force out on September 30 and have it replaced by U.N. troops. Even if Bashir agreed, it would take many months to deploy U.N. peacekeepers. Annan told a news conference the United Nations would work with the AU to strengthen its force, which has failed to stem the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, where three years of murder and rape have pushed 2.5 million people out of their homes and into squalid camps.