OF COURSE NOW THAT SUDAN WILL HAS BEEN DRIVEN INTO IRAN'S NUCLEAR
STANDOFF AND BIN LADEN DECLARED IT TO BE A MAJOR FRONT IN THE WAR
AGAINST THE "CRUSADERS". MAYBE THERE IS A CONSPIRACY HERE? FUCAK
AMERICA.
THE AFRICAN YUGOSLAVIA...
U.S. To Push NATO On Darfur Role
(Page 1 of 2)
UNITED NATIONS, April 26, 2006
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to push NATO allies to
take a more active peacekeeping role in Darfur at a NATO foreign
ministers meeting in Bulgaria this week. Here she is pictured in Sudan
in July 2005, accompanied by Foreign Minister Dr, Mustafa Osman Ismail,
left. (AP)
Fast Facts
Washington has been urging NATO to step up its support for African
Union peacekeepers in Sarfur. So far, support has been limited to
airlift and a small training mission for AU commanders.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS/AP) U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to push
NATO allies this week to accept a more robust role for the alliance
helping African peacekeepers to end political and ethnic strife in
Sudan's Darfur region.
Darfur is expected to be a major topic at a meeting of NATO foreign
ministers Thursday and Friday in the Bulgarian capital, along with the
dangers facing allied troops as they expand their mission in
Afghanistan and the intensifying nuclear standoff between Iran and the
West.
This comes the same week that the U.N. Security Council imposed
sanctions on four men accused of atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region,
the first time it has moved to punish those responsible for three years
of conflict that has left 180,000 dead. It also comes a few days in
advance of demonstrations in the United States planned for Sunday.
"Major U.S. demonstrations are set to support the African Union peace
talks this weekend, and to take the Sudanese government and rebel
leaders to task for the tragedy that has been unfolding in western
Sudan for three years," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela
Falk, who added that the talks are "complicated by the targeting of
U.N. forces by the newly-released bin Laden tape and the fact that some
perceive the battle as an African-vs.-Arab conflict."
Iran was not on NATO's official agenda, but is expected to dominate an
informal dinner Thursday evening where ministers representing the 32
nations of NATO and the European Union are scheduled to hold
free-ranging talks on world affairs.
On Wednesday, Rice said that Washington was concerned about Iranian
threats to share the nuclear technology it is developing with other
countries.
Rice was in Turkey on a weeklong trip to Europe that started in Greece.
Early Wednesday, she departed Turkey for a surprise visit to Iraq. She
was expected to visit Sofia, Bulgaria, after the Iraq visit, the U.S.
Embassy said.
Rice was likely to seek common ground with allies before Friday's U.N.
Security Council deadline for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, a
process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors or material for
warheads.
Western officials have warned Tehran that failure to comply could lead
to sanctions, but they faced opposition from permanent Security Council
members China and Russia. It was unclear what the next steps of the
U.S. and European allies will be. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov is due to join the NATO talks on Friday.
The Sofia meeting is also expected to discuss proposals for NATO to
develop closer ties other democracies including Australia, Japan, New
Zealand and South Korea to coordinate political positions and
peacekeeping operations.
The ministers will also review efforts by Ukraine, Georgia, Croatia,
Albania and Macedonia to join the alliance. NATO Secretary General Jaap
de Hoop Scheffer on Tuesday said NATO leaders would "send a signal"
on the countries' membership aspirations at a summit in November, but a
final decision was unlikely before 2008.
On Darfur, Washington has been urging NATO to step up its support for
African Union peacekeepers, which so far has been limited to airlift
and a small training mission for AU commanders.
The 6,000-strong AU force has failed to halt political and ethnic
violence, which has killed more than 180,000 people and driven more
than 3 million from their homes.
The United States wants NATO to provide the Africans with logistics,
communications, transport, planning, intelligence and expanded training
- including an unspecified number of instructors and other experts on
the ground in Sudan.
NATO has offered to do more, but several allies fear sending
significant numbers of Europeans and North Americans could inflame
regional sensitivities - particularly if the mainly Muslim Sudanese
government opposes a NATO deployment.
Osama bin Laden accused the United States, in a tape aired Sunday, of
igniting strife in Darfur "to pave the way for sending Crusader
forces to occupy the region and steal its oil under the pretext of
peacekeeping. It is a continuing Crusader-Zionist war against
Muslims."
Any final decision on NATO's role is expected to come only after
complex negotiations involving the Sudanese government, United Nations,
African Union and the 26 NATO members.
The meeting comes as the U.N. children's fund announced that
malnutrition is on the rise again in Darfur, where more fighting and
less money are eroding progress.
"We need to raise the alarm bell," said Ted Chaiban, head of
UNICEF's mission to Sudan. "We're losing ground. We need to stop this
deterioration.
"We are seeing the beginning of what could be a reverse of the
positive trend of 2005."
Fighting between the government, its allies and the rebel movements,
infighting among rebel factions jockeying for position and territory,
as well as general banditry - individuals hijacking trucks, looting
food, supplies and equipment - have forced a new wave of people from
their homes, Chaiban said.
Unrest is also preventing access to roughly a third of all those people
who have been forced from their homes but remain within Sudan, and are
therefore not officially classified as refugees because they have not
fled across an international border.
"And there is the added element of lack of funding despite the fact
this is seen and said to be a top priority for most donors," said
Chaiban, who said UNICEF has received only $15 million of the $89
million it appealed for in Darfur for 2006.
An additional 200,000 people have fled their homes to escape the
violence over the last three months alone, putting the number of
internally displaced people in Darfur at over 2 million, he said.
Another 200,000 refugees are in Chad.
"In any other place that would have been front page news," Chaiban
said. "In Darfur, because there were already 1.85 million displaced
people and because we've been at it for three years, it doesn't
register on the Richter scale."
After huge humanitarian efforts decreased the rate of global acute
malnutrition from 21.8 percent in 2004 to 11.9 percent in 2005, the
number has risen again to 15 percent in South Darfur, he said.
"It's starting to creep up again," Chaiban said. "We're seeing
some trends that we have to watch and make sure don't confirm
themselves."
UNICEF only has enough funds to sustain operations until early June.
"That means real activities that help real children are not
continued," Chaiban said.
UNICEF has already cut back or suspended funding for education,
maternal and child nutrition, primary health care, and extending water
systems to rural communities.
"What is clearly needed is a force on the ground that has the person
power, the mandate and the logistical back up to be able to make a
difference," Chaiban concluded.
Fighting in Darfur began in February 2003 when rebels from ethnic
African tribes took up arms, complaining of discrimination and
oppression by Sudan's Arab-dominated government. The government is
accused of unleashing Arab tribal militia known as the Janjaweed
against civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson.
Over 180,000 people have died in the conflict. Some three million have
been driven from their homes.
More than 100,000 Sudanese children under 5 died last year from
malaria, diarrhea and acute respiratory infections, UNICEF said.
Tuesday, African Union mediators presented their first comprehensive
draft agreement to the warring Darfur parties, whose representatives
have been engaged in peace negotiations in Nigeria. The African Union
has set Sunday as a deadline for an agreement. Seven previous rounds of
talks have failed to stem the fighting.
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| Title: Re: U.S. To Push NATO On Darfur Role |
27 Apr 2006 08:59:15 AM |
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***** USA,help me first.
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