From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Oct 08 2008 - 10:37:46 EDT
UN chief sees obstacles to helping Darfur, Somalia
By JOHN HEILPRIN
Oct 8, 2008
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The beleaguered peacekeeping force in Sudan's
violence-wracked Darfur region cannot be significantly strengthened
this year because of increased dangers, the U.N. chief said Tuesday.
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said he has delayed his goal of putting 22,000 of the
authorized 26,000 troops on the ground by the end of this year.
The
African Union-U.N. force known as UNAMID in Darfur currently numbers
about 10,000. Ban said he hopes to reach 17,000 by January and the
22,000 mark around March.
"I may have to adjust a little bit in
view of the circumstances on the ground," he told reporters. "The
situation in Darfur is deteriorating. We are seeing increasing attacks
on U.N. and international staff."
Only Monday, a Nigerian
peacekeeper was killed in an ambush, he noted, becoming the ninth U.N.
soldier to die in Darfur in the past three months.
The force
relies heavily on African troops, which Sudan has insisted on, and has
been beset by a critical lack of equipment contributions like
helicopters. Ban said he has been discussing with Ukraine's president
and defense minister the possibility of that nation providing some
military choppers and more troops.
In July, the U.N. Security
Council voted to renew the peace mission despite a raging debate over
whether it should invoke its power to suspend an independent court's
efforts to prosecute Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on
genocide and war crimes charges.
The Darfur conflict began in
early 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against Sudan's
Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of discrimination. Many
of the worst atrocities in the war have been blamed on the janjaweed
militia of Arab nomads allied with the government.
Ban and other
diplomats say the only way to end the fighting that has killed up to
300,000 people and forced 2.5 million to flee their homes is through
political talks and a peace agreement.
On another matter, Ban
said he was greatly concerned about the security of food aid that 3
million Somalis depend on in light of increasing piracy in waters
around the Horn of Africa.
He said there was an Oct. 23 deadline
for nations to replace a Canadian frigate that has been the only ship
escorting the U.N.'s World Food Program food aid deliveries to Somalia.
Before Canada, he said, the food program relied on security provided by
ships from the Netherlands, France and Denmark.
"Without escorts,
those ships will not arrive. Without that aid, more people will die,"
Ban said. "Three million people are in danger of starving."
In a
move to curb the piracy, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved
a resolution Tuesday calling on all nations with a stake in Somalia's
maritime safety to send naval ships and military aircraft to Somalia's
coastline.
Ban opened his hour-long press conference, his first
in a promised monthly ritual, addressing the global financial crisis
and expressing confidence in nations' commitments this month to donate
to the U.N.'s ambitious goals of notching significant reductions in
poverty, hunger and disease by 2015.
"Despite the market turmoil, we raised $16 billion," he said. "I urge world leaders to honor these pledges."
The
U.N. chief also said he agreed with comments made by World Bank
President Robert Zoellick a day earlier suggesting that the Group of
Seven industrialized countries should be expanded to include growing
economies in Asia and Latin America.
"Banks may be failing," he added. "But the world's bottom billion can bank on us."
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j8-zrOIL0rJcz8hzEIJ01ALEQp_QD93LUF8G0
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----