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UNITED NATIONS, April 30 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Monday extended the U.N. mission in southern Sudan for six months, lamented the lack of a chief U.N. envoy and called for an end to atrocities in the Darfur region.
But the United States, which drafted the resolution, was forced to water down the text on Darfur and delete calls for a large U.N. force in the western Sudanese region.
Instead council members insisted the resolution focus mainly on the 10,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Sudan, where troops are helping to enforce a 2005 peace pact after decades of an intermittent civil war between the Arab-dominated north and the Christian and animist south.
"What is important was not in any way to send a signal that we were undermining our continued support for an agreement, which was crucial after all to ending a 35-year civil war," said British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, the current council president.
Still, the text expresses "grave concern" over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, condemns attacks on civilians and calls on all parties to "put an end to the violence and atrocities in Darfur" where at least 200,000 people have died and 2.3 million are homeless.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N30296692.htmBut the United States, which drafted the resolution, was forced to water down the text on Darfur and delete calls for a large U.N. force in the western Sudanese region.
Instead council members insisted the resolution focus mainly on the 10,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Sudan, where troops are helping to enforce a 2005 peace pact after decades of an intermittent civil war between the Arab-dominated north and the Christian and animist south.
"What is important was not in any way to send a signal that we were undermining our continued support for an agreement, which was crucial after all to ending a 35-year civil war," said British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, the current council president.
Still, the text expresses "grave concern" over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Darfur, condemns attacks on civilians and calls on all parties to "put an end to the violence and atrocities in Darfur" where at least 200,000 people have died and 2.3 million are homeless.
Now they've condemned the violence. I bet the Sudanese government and the militia groups are shaking in their boots now.
