[Mb-civic] CBC News - UN CHIEF SLAMS LACK OF ACTION IN DARFUR

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UN CHIEF SLAMS LACK OF ACTION IN DARFUR
WebPosted Sat Jul  2 23:59:57 2005

---UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says history will likely regard
developed countries as "uncaring" for their failure to stop the violence
in Sudan's Darfur region.

In one of his harshest statements yet on the Darfur crisis, Annan told a
BBC television program that the world appears to have learned nothing
from its slow response to the Rwandan tragedy.

Over three months in 1994, nearly a million people were slaughtered in
Rwanda as developed countries and the United Nations Security Council
dithered over what to do.

"Are we going to repeat what happened in Rwanda?" Annan said on a BBC
television documentary Never Again , to be aired on Sunday.

The two-year-old Darfur conflict, stemming from the fallout of a peace
deal to end the country's decades-old civil war, has driven about two
million people from their villages to live in camps.

Armed Arab militias, allegedly supported by the government, have killed
more than 10,000 people. The United Nations believes another 170,000
people have died from hunger and disease related to the violence.



At the moment, about 2,400 troops from the African Union are stationed in
the western Sudan region to monitor a ceasefire, but the fighting and
atrocities continue.

The UN Security Council bickered for months over what to do about Darfur,
eventually asking the International Criminal court to investigate.

Speaking in the BBC program, Annan described the international response
to the Darfur tragedy as "slow, hesitant and uncaring."

Canada has announced an aid package for Darfur that includes $170 million
in assistance as well as the help of as many as 100 peacekeepers.

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