May 19, 2008 On the first day of June 2008, the U.S. will begin its month-long presidency of the United Nations (UN) Security Council - a window of opportunity for effective international leadership. The top U.S. priority for this period should be achieving the full deployment of the UNAMID peacekeeping force for Darfur, Sudan, that the Security Council authorized last July. Over the past five months, Ambassador Richard Williamson, the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, and other Bush administration officials have blamed the lack of “creativity and flexibility” of UN bureaucracy for UNAMID’s slow deployment. Yet the United Nations can only be effective when empowered by its member states, of which the U.S. is the most powerful. Rather than passing the blame to the UN, the U.S. should seize the spotlight of its June Security Council presidency as the time to leverage the necessary diplomatic and economic pressure to overcome all obstacles to the mission’s complete and effective deployment. The humanitarian situation in Sudan has grown increasingly dire in 2008, due to a renewal of high-intensity attacks by government forces and allied janjaweed militia on civilians, increased restrictions by the Sudanese government on the operations of international relief agencies and the global food crisis. The recent attacks on Khartoum by Darfuri rebels and resulting government retaliation against civilians may intensify this crisis. Further, Chad’s domestic armed conflict is having a destabilizing impact on neighboring Darfur and northeastern Central African Republic. The hard work of ending conflict and human rights violations in Sudan will continue to be undermined without a coordinated and comprehensive U.S. and international strategy to address these connected regional crises. For complete Africa Action statement and list of signatories to click here Culled from TransAfrica Forum 5/21/8
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