KEY MEETING ON SOLVING DARFUR CRISIS KICKS OFF AT UN HEADQUARTERS

KEY MEETING ON SOLVING DARFUR CRISIS KICKS OFF AT UN HEADQUARTERS
New York, Sep 21 2007 2:00PM
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his African Union counterpart have brought together foreign ministers and other senior figures from more than two dozen countries and regional groups for a meeting in New York today to mobilize international support behind peace talks next month that will try to end the brutal conflict in Darfur, Sudan.

Mr. Ban and AU Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konaré are co-chairing the Second High-Level Consultation on Darfur, which is taking place at UN Headquarters this afternoon. Foreign ministers or senior figures from 26 countries are in attendance, as well as representatives of the European Union and the League of Arab States.

Today's meeting is designed to strengthen international support for action on the political front in the lead-up to the peace talks between the Sudanese Government and Darfur's rebel groups, which are scheduled to be held in Libya on 27 October. Those talks will be conducted under the auspices of the UN and AU envoys for Darfur, Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim.

The meeting is also being held to boost support for the establishment of the hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force in Darfur (to be known as UNAMID) and for the humanitarian operations on the ground in the arid and impoverished region.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and at least 2.2 million others have fled their homes because of the fighting between rebels, Government forces and allied Janjaweed militias since 2003.

At full deployment UNAMID will have some 26,000 troops and police officers, making it the largest peacekeeping operation in the world.

Mr. Ban, who visited Darfur and the wider region at the start of the month, has warned that only a comprehensive solution that deals with all the issues – from politics and security to economic development and the environment – will solve the conflict.

He has also stressed that the peace talks in Libya next month must serve as a "final phase for a final settlement."
2007-09-21 00:00:00.000

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