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 Act in Sudan or quit, Annan told by Charles Hoskinson in washington
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Act in Sudan or quit, Annan told
By Charles Hoskinson in Washington
February 02, 2005
TWO key US politicians have demanded that UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan
move immediately to end genocide in Darfur or resign in protest at the
world
body's inaction.
A UN spokesman rejected the call by Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and
Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia, saying Mr Annan was not in a
position
to force action.
The two politicians also criticised a UN report released on Monday for
failing to recommend any action to stop the killing, saying the report
had
been sabotaged by internal UN politics.
"We cannot wait any longer for credible action on Darfur," Brownback
said.
"The time is now for the secretary general, Kofi Annan, to lead or
leave."
The two Republican politicians said stopping the killing in the western
region of Sudan would be a test of whether the United Nations remained
relevant in the 21st century. About 70,000 people are estimated to have
died, many from hunger and disease, while 1.5 million others have been
displaced, many into squalid and dangerous camps, in two years of
conflict.
"The United Nations has failed over and over to prevent genocide," said
Mr
Wolf, who ######### the House of Representatives subcommittee that approves
US
payments to the United Nations.
"If in the year 2005 the Security Council cannot deal with genocide ...
I
believe it's fair to ask what purpose is the United Nations serving in
the
21st century."
Senator Brownback said Security Council action "needs to happen within
the
next couple of weeks".
The two politicians said they wanted the council to: impose sanctions
on the
government in Khartoum, including a worldwide arms embargo; bar
investments
in Sudan; and increase sharply the number of African Union peacekeepers
in
Darfur.
If the council did not act quickly, the United States should assemble a
coalition of African and other nations and stop the killing, they said.
Mr Annan has so far been unsuccessful in mobilising the international
community on Darfur. Permanent Security Council members Russia and
China
oppose sanctions and have blocked efforts to impose them. Sudan's
government
has slammed the UN report as "unbalanced".
Mr Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said the best he could do was to
keep
trying.
"I think it's wrong to assume that he could somehow force them to take
a
course of action and that, should he not be successful, he would be
obliged
to step down," Mr Eckhard said.
"I think that's inconsistent with the (UN) charter."
Earlier, Mr Annan called on the council to refer rights abuses in
Darfur to
the International Criminal Court, after the recommendation of a
five-member
UN-appointed commission.
The commission accused the Sudanese government of gross, systematic
human
rights violations in Darfur but stopped short of labelling the violence
in
the region genocide. The commission recommended the abuses be dealt
with by
the court, based in The Hague.
"What is vital is that these people are indeed held accountable," Mr
Annan
said. "Such grave crimes cannot be committed with impunity."
The United States opposed the panel's recommendation and stood by its
finding of genocide in Darfur, State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher
said.
"We believe that the best way to address these crimes, as detailed in
the
report, is to establish a UN and African Union tribunal that would be
based
in Arusha, Tanzania," he said.
The humanitarian crisis in Darfur was born of a rebel uprising in
February
2003 against government neglect of the desert region in western Sudan.
Khartoum responded with a deadly show of force by government-supported
Arab
militias called the Janjaweed, which are accused of having waged a
scorched-earth campaign against non-Arab civilians.
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Mohamed Adam
Mohamed Suleiman
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست