UN troops needed in Sudan

MONROVIA, Liberia — The top U.N. envoy in Sudan declared Friday that efforts to bring peace to Sudan’s Darfur region have failed and called for a U.N. peacekeeping force of up to 20,000 troops to disarm marauding militias and provide security so over 2 million refugees can return home.

Jan Pronk said an ethnic cleansing campaign in 2003 and 2004 had been successful and a larger, more sophisticated and mobile force was needed to help end the continuing rapes and killings and stop the groups of 500 to 1,000 militia on camel and horseback that still attack villages at least once a month.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice disputed that the African Union mission in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region has failed - but said U.N. peacekeepers would be helpful there, nonetheless.

“The AU mission is not falling apart,” Rice said. However, she said: “The circumstances are beginning to change in a way that suggests that the AU mission may not be sufficient and may not be sustainable over the long-run.”

As a result, she said, the Bush administration favors a U.N. peacekeeping force - and possibly more NATO involvement - to help the African Union troops stop militias from raping and killing.

Rice spoke late Sunday while traveling to Africa for the inauguration of Liberian president-elect Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Rice said the African Union mission has succeeded “in what it is trying to do” and has helped lessen violence where it is deployed.

But, Rice said, the African Union’s effectiveness may be limited, given its size, and that a U.N. mission has widespread access to money and troops. A shortage of both, as well as equipment, has plagued the African Union.

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council last week accepted in principle the need to transform its 7,000-strong peacekeeping force in Darfur into a U.N. peacekeeping force. The AU council extended the AU force’s mandate until March 31, authorized consultations with the U.N., and said a final decision would be taken by ministers at the end of March.

Rice also urged cooperation from the Khartoum government in stemming the violence.

“They have a problem in Darfur,” she said. “The international community expects them to contribute to solving it and also expects them to allow the international community to contribute to solving it.”

The conflict began in 2003 when Darfur’s herding and farming communities, split by years of skirmishes over land and water, took up arms in large-scale fighting. More than 180,000 people have died from famine and violence. The Arab-dominated government in Khartoum has been accused of backing the Janjaweed militia against the ethnic tribe members in Darfur.

(Associated Press )