U.N. chief: momentum in Darfur By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

U.N. chief: momentum in Darfur By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 18 minutes ago



UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday called the coming months crucial in the quest for peace in Darfur, following political momentum and approval of a joint African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force to stem the violence.

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But in a report to the U.N. Security Council, Ban warned that "as long as hostilities continue in Darfur, efforts to reach a political settlement and achieve durable peace will not succeed."

The release of the report comes as a meeting gets under way this weekend in Arusha, Tanzania, organized by the U.N. and AU to get Darfur's various splinter rebel factions to agree on an agenda for peace talks.

It also follows Tuesday's unanimous approval by the U.N. Security Council of a 26,000-strong AU-U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur to end four years of rape and slaughter of civilians in the vast Sudanese region.

"The coming weeks and months will be a crucial period in the quest for peace in Darfur," Ban said.

The joint U.N.-AU effort to achieve a political solution "will gain momentum" as special envoys from the two organizations "make every effort to commence negotiations" between all combatants and the government, he said.

The secretary-general said implementing the Security Council resolution on the AU-U.N. "hybrid" force will be "a major litmus test of the political will of all involved."

Ban said successfuly deploying the hybrid force "will very much depend on the government's cooperation and assistance, especially with regard to the provision of adequate land, permission to drill for water and the timely clearance of critical mission-support items through customs."

The international community in the next month must also offer the troops and police for the hybrid operation so that the AU-U.N. force can take over as quickly as possible from the underfunded and poorly equipped 7,000-strong AU force currently on the ground in Darfur, which has been unable to stem the violence, he said.

Meanwhile, Ban said he worried about Darfur's "very precarious" situation. Violence and insecurity continue, including Sudanese military bombings of civilian areas, ground attacks against civilian villages, a resurgence of inter-tribal clashes, and systematic rape.

This year, he said, more than 150,000 people have fled their villages, most seeking refuge in camps for internally displaced people that in many cases are already overcrowded.

Ban said the insecurity has forced humanitarian organizations to curtail some programs, leading to "the deterioration of the living conditions of the millions of conflict-affected people who depend on humanitarian agencies for their survival."

An estimated 566,000 of the 4.2 million conflict-affected persons in Darfur are cut off from humanitarian assistance, he said.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million uprooted since the conflict in Darfur began in February 2003, when ethnic African tribes rebelled against what they consider decades of neglect and discrimination.

Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed — a charge it denies. The Darfur Peace Agreement, signed a year ago by the government and one rebel group, has been unable to stop the violence.