BRUSSELS, 16 September 2006 — The European Union pressed Sudan yesterday to accept a 20,000-strong UN peace operation in Darfur, warning a security vacuum there could lead to humanitarian crisis reminiscent of the Rwanda genocide. “Without transition to the United Nations and with the African Union leaving, we would, as Kofi Annan said, be going toward another Rwanda,” European Commission aid spokesman Amadeu Altafaj said.
The UN secretary-general on Monday warned of further disasters in Darfur unless UN troops were deployed, evoking the 1994 genocide in Rwanda by asking if the international community could sit by and watch without intervening as another tragedy unfolded.
The EU’s foreign ministers, meeting yesterday in Brussels, supported Annan’s position and urged Khartoum to drop its opposition to 20,000 United Nations forces replacing the cash-strapped 7,000-strong African Union mission. Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir on Thursday fended off the pressure.
