|
Top US diplomat in Sudan for Darfur talks
2007-04-12
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte arrived in Sudan on Thursday at the start of an African tour that will be dominated by the situation in war-torn Darfur, an official said. Negroponte is expected to press Khartoum to accept a hybrid peacekeeping force of UN and African Union forces to stem violence that has steadily escalated since the Darfur conflict erupted in 2003 and which has increased tension between Sudan and neighbouring Chad. "The tragic situation of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur is something that peoccupies all Americans. It is an issue to which the administration is devoting considerable time and resources," Negroponte said in Washington ahead of his mission. On Friday he will go to Juba, capital of semi-autonomous south Sudan over which a peace accord was signed in January 2005 after more than 20 years of conflict with the north. The US embassy said Negroponte will travel to Durfur on Saturday ahead of talks on Sunday with officials in Khartoum. The State Department said he will then visit Chad, Libya and Mauritania. Negroponte's visit comes after the United States held off on a decision to impose unilateral sanctions against Sudan to give UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon a last chance to convince Khartoum to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur. Ban on April 2 asked for an additional two to four weeks to pressure Sudan's government to lift its opposition to deployment of the UN force of some 20,000 troops to Darfur before turning to sanctions. Sudan, the United Nations and the African Union have agreed in Addis Ababa on phase two of UN support for the AU force, with 7,000 men. But Khartoum is refusing to accept a further 3,000 men and assault helicopters, according to Sudanese press reports. Phase three -- the hybrid UN-AU force itself, has yet to be negotiated. The African Union peacekeepers have been unable to contain the violence in Darfur where 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million driven from their homes, according to the United Nations, which has reported widespread human rights abuses. The Khartoum government disputes those figures.
| 
