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G8 begs UN to deal with Sudan
11/06/2004 10:47 - (SA)
Savannah, Georgia - The leaders of the world's most powerful nations appealed to the United Nations to help prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan, where ethnic violence in the western Darfur region has displaced more than a million people.
Sudan's vice president, meanwhile, indirectly blamed Western countries for the escalating humanitarian crisis in western Sudan, saying that if they had given promised funds to Sudan, the Darfur region would have been more likely to develop.
A joint statement issued by the Group of Eight at its annual summit voiced concern about reports that Arab militias are carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign against black Africans in Darfur.
"There are continuing reports of gross violations of human rights, many with an ethnic dimension," the declaration said. "We look to the United Nations to lead the international effort to avert a major disaster and will work together to achieve this end."
Thousands of people have been killed over 15 months of conflict in Darfur. International aid groups suspect the Sudanese government is backing the nomadic militiamen, known as janjaweed, who have been sweeping through villages and carrying out massacres.
"We are on the verge of a grave humanitarian crisis, and it's time to sound the alarm," a French official said.
The statement by the G-8 - which comprises France, Italy, Canada, Britain, Japan, Germany, Russia and the United States _ urged the Sudanese government to disarm the janjaweed and other groups behind "massive human rights violations in Darfur".
"We call on the conflict parties to address the roots of the Darfur conflict and to seek a political solution," the statement said.
The Sudanese government last week signed a peace accord in Kenya with the southern Sudan's People' Liberation Army.
The southern conflict, which broke out in 1983, is unrelated to the crisis in Darfur, but Sudanese leaders hope that peace in the south would encourage the rebels in the west to stop their insurgency.
Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, speaking to more than 200 Egyptian and Sudanese intellectuals on Thursday, said Western nations were to blame for the crisis in Darfur.
"You made Darfur - you in Europe and the Western world," he said, suggesting that millions of dollars in aid had been kept from Sudan by economic sanctions and thus the poor Darfur region was not able to develop.
"The war in Darfur was deliberately spurred to disturb peace negotiations in (Kenya), to cause more wounds and to hinder stability in Sudan," Taha said.
Aid workers have been working frantically to keep hundreds of thousands of displaced people from perishing in Darfur before heavy rains, expected within the next two weeks, render relief work impossible.
The G-8 leaders, who were wrapping up their gathering on Sea Island, Georgia, pledged to provide "humanitarian aid to those in need" in Sudan.
The statement came as the leaders met with the heads of five African nations - Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Algeria - to discuss ways to alleviate poverty, combat AIDS and co-operate on peacekeeping.
In Brussels on Thursday, the European Union said it was giving €12m to support the quick deployment of an African Union peacekeeping force to Sudan.
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