Military

DATE=7/26/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=UN/SUDAN-CONGRESS (L-O)

NUMBER=2-317782

BYLINE=KERRY SHERIDAN

DATELINE=NEW YORK

CONTENT=

HEADLINE: U.S. Congress Members Say U.N. Must Take Stronger Stand Against Sudan

INTRO: Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are pressing the United Nations to take swifter action to halt violence against civilians in the western Darfur region of Sudan. Kerry Sheridan reports from V-O-A's New York Bureau.

TEXT: Representative Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat from Illinois, said she wanted to tell U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that security for the Sudanese people should be a top concern for the international community.

/// SCHAKOWSKY ACT ///

"We wanted to make him aware of the resolutions unanimously passed in a bipartisan fashion, both in the United States House and Senate last Thursday, that declared the situation a genocide, and calling for immediate action to respond to that. We are very concerned that the security situation be dealt with immediately in the Sudan. We understand that would require an influx of resources, and we wanted to talk to him about the role that the United States and the international community can play."

/// END ACT ///

International pressure on Sudan has been mounting. Last week, Congress passed a non-binding resolution that called the atrocities in Darfur acts of genocide. The United States also circulated a tougher draft U.N. resolution on sanctions. On Monday, European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels called for the United Nations to consider imposing sanctions on Sudan.

Representative Donald Payne, a Democrat from New Jersey, accused the Sudanese government of not doing enough to end the atrocities committed by Arab militias against the region's black African civilians.

/// PAYNE ACT ///

"We are very disturbed at the lack of concern from countries outside the U.S., the Europeans, the African Union. The fact that everyone seems to feel that the government of Sudan is going to act in good faith. We know that the government of Sudan does not act in good faith. It acts when it feels it has to."

/// END ACT ///

International human rights groups say the government of Sudan is providing support to the Janjaweed militia, which the government denies.

Mr. Payne called on the Security Council to act quickly.

/// 2nd Payne ACT ///

"I think that the Security Council should step up to the plate and all 15 countries agree that this is a humanitarian tragedy. They know what will happen when the rains come. The measles will break out, the diphtheria will go on, the diarrhea will kill, and these will be quiet deaths. They will be children who are very fragile at this time and will die. Numbers will be difficult to even count."

/// END ACT ///

U.N. officials estimate at least 30-thousand people have died in Darfur, and more than a million have been displaced in what the United Nations says is the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.

NYC/NEB/KS/BJS/TW