United Nations Security Council President John Danforth on Friday urged Sudan and its warring rebels to shoulder the responsibility for ending their civil war and bringing peace and prosperity to Africa’s largest country.
“As this meeting attests, the attention of the world is upon you. The UN and all the nations of the world expect, demand, that you deliver on your word,” the United States ambassador told the council in Nairobi.
“That means there must be a peace agreement in place by December 31. Implementation must begin on January 1,” he added.
“Some are already saying, ‘oh just another resolution,’ … and that this whole event is just a photo opportunity … that the event was an illusion. In the meantime, people are dying in Sudan, women and children are suffering, and the atrocities in Darfur continue.
“We came here not for a ceremony, not for a photo op, but for results,” he insisted, shortly after the council unanimously adopted a resolution slammed by aid agencies for failing to take Khartoum to task over massive human-rights abuses committed in the west Sudanese region of Darfur.
“The entire Security Council flew here together, unified in its desire to see peace in all of Sudan, now,” Danforth added.
It was the first time in 14 years that the UN Security Council had met outside its New York headquarters, in a measure of the importance that it has placed in finding a settlement to the 21-year conflict in Sudan.
Danforth told Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Taha and John Garang, the leader of a southern rebel group that has waged a separate war in southern Sudan since 1983: “It is up to you to prove the naysayers and sceptics wrong and move your country forward to joining the family of nations.”
“Sudan must become a nation that respects human rights and that replaces violence with political dialogue,” he added.
“The violence and atrocities being perpetrated in Darfur must end now. You heard this message clearly from the Security Council. Heed it. I cannot emphasise this point more strongly,” he said. — Sapa-AFP
Sudan peace pledge at rare UN meeting