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Times 2

Bush pledges more aid for Sudan

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 9, 2006

WASHINGTON - President Bush called on Monday for the United Nations to take over peacekeeping in the Darfur region of Sudan and promised to expedite food aid. He welcomed a proposed peace accord as "the beginnings of hope" for Darfur's poverty-stricken population.

He also urged Congress to act on a request for $225-million in emergency food aid for Darfur, and he said he was ordering the emergency purchase of 40,000 metric tons of food and dispatching five ships to carry it to the region.

Bush's announcement came as a riot in a Darfur refugee camp forced the visiting U.N. humanitarian chief to flee. The refugees later attacked African peacekeepers and killed a translator.

The violence broke out Monday as the U.N.'s Jan Egeland toured Kalma camp, home to some 90,000 displaced people driven from their villages in Darfur. He was met by about 1,000 protesters demanding U.N. peacekeepers be deployed in the region.

The protesters attacked a translator traveling with Egeland after someone in the crowd accused the man of working with the Janjaweed, the feared Arab militia blamed for atrocities against villagers, U.N. spokeswoman Dawn Blalock said.

The translator, who worked for the humanitarian agency Oxfam, escaped uninjured when he was pulled into a U.N. van. Egeland and the rest of the convoy returned safely to the nearby town of Nyala in South Darfur, Blalock said.

About a half-hour later, the crowd attacked unarmed African Union peacekeepers at a nearby compound, killing a Sudanese translator working with the African Union and taking communications equipment, she said.

Bush said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would go to the United Nations today to press for a new U.N. resolution increasing peacekeepers.

The aim is to nearly double the 7,200 African Union peacekeeping force on the ground in Darfur and put the expanded force under U.N. control.

The $225-million requested in March from Congress is in addition to $215-million already contributed to the World Food Program, said Randall Tobias, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The second largest contributor, he said, was Libya, which donated $4.5-million for food, followed by Canada, with $3-million.

Bush invited other countries to also do more to help relieve famine in Darfur.

The president sought to build momentum for a peace agreement reached by Sudanese authorities and Darfur's main rebel group on Friday. The deal could help end a conflict that has killed about 200,000 people in three years and displaced some 2-million.

He praised the agreement as "a step toward peace."

[Last modified May 9, 2006, 07:44:16]