Annan: Take action now
2004-09-17 07:58
New York - Secretary General Kofi Annan on Thursday called on the UN Security Council to take urgent action over a US draft resolution on Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
"I have urged the Security Council to act on the draft resolution without delay and to be as united as possible," he told reporters. "It seems to me inconceivable that it should fail to respond."
China has threatened to veto the measure and Ambassador Wang Guangya said earlier that Beijing still had problems with the draft, which is aimed at pressing Sudan to rein in the Arab militias behind the Darfur bloodshed.
The resolution hangs the threat of sanctions against Sudan's oil industry if Khartoum does not end the violence, which has left an estimated 50 000 people dead and displaced 1.4 million more.
The United States has called the atrocities "genocide".
The resolution calls on Sudan to disarm and clamp down on the Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, blamed for a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing against largely black natives in the vast western Darfur region.
It also calls for an expanded presence of African Union monitors in the region and asks the United Nations to establish a commission of enquiry to determine if genocide has occurred.
Annan said he would send the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, to Sudan on Saturday but that she would not be investigating the genocide question.
"No matter how the crimes that are being committed against civilians in Darfur are characterised or legally defined, it is urgent to take action now," he said. "Time is of the essence."
Follows a previous resolution
The United States has said it wanted a vote on Friday on the draft, which follows a previous resolution passed by the Security Council in July calling on Sudan to bring an end to the violence.
Council diplomats have acknowledged the risk in adopting a resolution so tough that it breaks off any hope of winning the cooperation of the Sudanese government in ending the killing.
"We know that one should not push a government so far that there is no cooperation," said Ambassador Heraldo Munoz of Chile, who said earlier on Thursday that he would vote in favour of the measure.
"At the same time, we cannot have a weak resolution that is so weak it sends the wrong message," he said.
Nine votes are needed to pass a council resolution as long as there is no veto from one of the permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
Washington has said it wants a vote by Friday and has insisted the threat of sanctions is needed to get Khartoum to comply. It appears to have the needed votes if China does not veto.
Sudan enlisted the help of the Janjaweed in helping to put down a rebellion that began in Darfur in February 2003 as natives complained that the Arab-led government in Khartoum was ignoring its concerns.
Talks between the rebels and the government are at a standstill.