Protests around World call for UN to intervene in Darfur by AFP / CNN International 8:15am 18th Sep, 2006   21.9.2006.    Arican Union extends Darfur Mandate. (AFP)    A looming human catastrophe in Darfur appears to have been temporarily averted after African leaders agreed to extend and strengthen their peacekeeping mandate in the troubled region in Sudan.    But the African force will only stay on for another three months, and the Sudanese Government is still refusing to allow up to 20,000 United Nations peacekeepers to take over.    The decision was reached at a summit meeting of the AU''s 15-member Peace and Security Council (PSC) meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.    However US President George W. Bush and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reiterated the need for UN troops to take over from the ill-equiped African force.    Last month, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution calling for the deployment of up to 20,000 UN peacekeepers to replace a smaller, ill-equipped African Union force in war-torn Darfur.    But Sudan''s government has opposed the deployment of the proposed UN mission.    At least 200,000 people have died in the region in the past three years in fighting and from disease and malnutrition caused by the conflict.    The PSC chairman, Burkina Faso President Blaise Campaore, said the 7,200-strong AU force, known as AMIS, would be strengthened "through contributions from Africa, logistical and material support from the UN and a commitment by the Arab League to fund the operation."    UN officials confirmed that the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations had agreed to provide logistical support to the ill-equipped AU force as discussions continue to persuade Khartoum to accept a transition to a robust UN force.    18.9.2006.    World Rallies for Darfur. (AFP)    Meetings and rallies have been held in nearly 50 cities worldwide to call for an end to the civil war in Sudan"s western Darfur region which has led to the deaths of more than 300,000 people.    Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were among around 30 human rights groups behind the Global Day for Darfur.    The event was organised to coincide with the start of the United Nations General Assembly debate today on Darfur and to mark the first anniversary of the signing of the 2005 UN World Summit Outcome Document.    The document pledged "to take collective action... if national authorities manifestly fail to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity," according to the event"s organisers.    Demonstrations took place in cities across the globe, stretching from Bamako to Berlin, Dubai to Dublin, Manama to Melbourne and from Seoul to Stockholm.    The conflict in Darfur between rebels and government-backed Arab militia began in February 2003 and has left more than 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the United Nations.    The international community, led by the UN and the United States, has called for an embattled contingent of African Union monitors to be replaced by a more robust force of UN peacekeepers.    But the Sudanese government has consistently rejected the option..    September 17, 2006 (CNN)    Tens of thousands of demonstrators in cities around the world on Sunday demanded action to stop the killing in Darfur, Sudan.    "We are all here because everybody is fed up in watching no action on Darfur, while we have been watching rolling genocide," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told CNN from New York"s Central Park. Organizers there said they were expecting tens of thousands of people.    In addition to the United States, the "Global Day for Action on Darfur" also took place in Canada and across Europe, Africa and Asia. Protesters gathered in London outside Prime Minister Tony Blair"s residence, and in Rwanda and Cambodia, led by survivors of genocides there. (Watch demonstrators around the world plead for attention on Darfur - 3:38)    The message: The United Nations should send peacekeepers into western Sudan, with or without its capital, Khartoum"s, approval.    This month, the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution for such a force to replace the African Union troops already there but said the force wouldn"t be deployed until Sudan could be persuaded to accept it.    To demonstrate support for the U.N."s mandate, hundreds of demonstrators wore berets made from blue cloth, the material of the uniforms worn by U.N. peacekeepers.    T-shirts read "Stop Genocide" and "Never Again."    "The international community has really not done enough," Albright said. "So today is a day where there are people all over the world putting their voices together to say that Sudan has a last chance to be on the right side of this. Or forever be on the wrong side," Albright said.    She urged international action against the oil-rich nation, including sanctions that would limit travel abroad by Sudanese leaders and a no-fly zone over the Darfur region. "Other countries have to stop doing business with Sudan," she said. "Oil is not more important than human lives. I don"t care what country you"re from."    Albright said the crisis in Sudan differs from that which occurred in 1994 in Rwanda, where nearly a million people were killed in 100 days when Bill Clinton was president.    "President Clinton and I have so many times said how horrible it was that we weren"t able to do something about Rwanda, but the lesson is different. Rwanda was volcanic genocide ... this is rolling genocide."    Asked if the United States should send troops, Albright said, "We don"t have any U.S. troops. They"re in Iraq, and they"re in Afghanistan. We"re stretched so thin we can"t take care of our other responsibilities."    U.N. under pressure to act    The global demonstrations were timed to coincide with the arrival of world leaders in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly.    Violence has increased in Darfur despite the May 5 signing of a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and the largest of three rebel groups -- the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army.    An African Union force of 7,000 has struggled to find funding for the mission and has been unable to quell the violence.    Khartoum has resisted international pressure to permit the transition from the African Union force to a more robust, better-equipped force under U.N. command. The government said it would not go along with that move until all of the major rebel groups have signed the peace agreement.    To protest the U.N. resolution, the Sudan government has threatened to kick out the African Union forces when their mandate expires and has begun to deploy its own troops to stem the violence. The United States has called the move an offensive against the rebel groups that have not signed the peace agreement.    Violence erupted three years ago in ethnically mixed Darfur, when ethnic African rebels took up arms over what they saw as neglect by the Arab-dominated central government.    The Sudanese government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias called Janjaweed, who have systematically raped women and pillaged villages in a campaign the United States has branded "genocide."    Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, has called for "urgent international action" to deal with the problem.    Humanitarian agencies are trying to deal with 2 million internally displaced people and more than 200,000 refugees in 12 UNHCR-run camps across the border in Chad, he said.    This month, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar introduced the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006.    In addition to calling for the administration to appoint a special envoy for Sudan, the legislation commits U.S. assets to assist the African Union forces and bans non-humanitarian assistance to the Sudanese government. In addition, the legislation calls for sanctions against individuals determined by President Bush to be "complicit in, or responsible for, acts of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity in Darfur."    Dallaire: Remember Rwanda    In Ottawa, Canada, former U.N. commander for Rwanda, Romeo Dallaire, attended the rally there.    Dallaire, a Liberal senator, warned that Darfur could become the next Rwanda. "Darfur is tasting, smelling, looking in every way, shape (and) form like a repetition on a similar scale of what happened in Rwanda 12 years ago," the retired lieutenant general said.    "We are going to witness, again with blood on our hands, the destruction of human beings who are exactly like us."    Click on the link below to sign the international petition:    I, alongside people and organizations from around the world, call on my President or Prime Minister and the international community to:    Strengthen the understaffed and overwhelmed African Union peacekeeping force now. We must offer extra help to the African peacekeepers already on the ground. Transition peacekeeping responsibilities to a stronger UN force as soon as possible. The UN must deploy peacekeepers with a strong mandate to protect civilians. Increase aid levels and ensure access for aid delivery. Shortfalls in aid continue to mean that people are at risk of starvation. Humanitarian organizations must have unfettered access to all who need help. Implement the Darfur Peace Agreement. For the violence to end, all parties to the agreement, in particular the Sudanese Government, must live up to their responsibilities. Visit the related web page
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