Amid reports of a growing government offensive against rebel-held areas in Darfur, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and a host of international human rights and humanitarian groups are calling on Sudan to permit UN peacekeepers to deploy urgently to the violence-torn region. Annan, who has spoken out with increasing urgency against Khartoum’s opposition to the deployment since the UN Security Council approved it late last month, raised the spectre of a repetition of the 1994 Rwandan genocide if the government does not permit as many as 20,500 UN peacekeepers to replace a largely ineffective African Union (AU) force whose mandate expires at the end of this month.

“Everyone said we should not let it happen again,” he said at a press conference at UN headquarters in New York City recently. “If the AU forces were to leave, and we are not able to put in a UN follow-on force, we are heading for a disaster, and I don’t think we can allow that to happen, particularly since we only recently passed the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ resolution.” He was referring to a resolution approved by the UN summit in 2005 that called for the Security Council to take decisive action to protect civilians from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

As Annan was speaking, 18 human rights and humanitarian groups issued a joint appeal for the international community “to intensify diplomatic efforts with the government of Sudan while concurrently planning for the rapid deployment of an adequately funded and well-equipped UN force to protect the people of Darfur regardless of the acquiescence of the Sudanese government.”

With time running out, the diplomatic pace has picked up. Before the Security Council vote last month, Washington sent its top Africa aide, Jendayi Frazer, to Khartoum, reportedly to offer Bashir a meeting with President George W Bush, among other incentives, if he agreed to the UN deployment. Bashir, however, kept her waiting three days before granting her an audience and then rejected the offer. The Bush administration has been reluctant to exert strong pressure on Russia and China, which have opposed sanctions, over Darfur due to the much higher priority it has attached to gaining their support in its growing confrontation with Iran.

The administration’s reticence has increasingly frustrated activists, which, in addition to the human rights groups, have also included Africa advocates, such as Africa Action, Jewish and Christian groups, and even staunch Republicans. Sen. John McCain, considered a major contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, and former Sen. Bob Dole, the Republican candidate defeated by former President Bill Clinton in 1996, called for the US and the EU to immediately impose financial sanctions against Sudan’s leadership; for NATO to enforce a “no-fly zone” over Darfur to halt its bombing raids; and for the US and its allies to step up satellite surveillance of Darfur to record any atrocities by Khartoum’s forces for eventual prosecution by the International Criminal Court.

They also called for the US to intensify its pressure on its diplomatic partners to commit troops and funds to a UN force and on the UN to prepare contingency plans “for the force to enter Darfur without Sudanese consent.” — IPS