UNITED NATIONS—The U.N. Security Council plans to push hard for lasting peace in Sudan and Somalia during a 10-day trip to five African countries starting next week, diplomats said.
The five-year-old conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, where an estimated 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced, has been a key issue during previous council trips to Africa. This year's working visit, which begins on Sunday, is no exception, council diplomats said.
Richard Grenell, spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said Washington was "pleased Security Council members will see first-hand the urgent issues facing Sudan."
"The Security Council has to do more to help the people of Sudan. Hopefully this trip will help make that the case."
The United States takes over the council's month-long rotating presidency from Britain on Sunday.
Other diplomats said the recent tensions over the future of the oil-rich Abyei region straddling northern and southern Sudan would get more attention than it has in the past.
"We'll spend more time on the south issue," Britain's U.N. Ambassador John Sawers told reporters. He said all sides needed to get back to implementing the landmark 2005 peace agreement.
Tens of thousands of civilians fled Abyei last week during clashes between northern and southern troops, prompting fears of a new civil war. In addition to Khartoum, the council expects to visit Juba, the capital of southern Sudan.
In Darfur, Sawers said the council would go to the headquarters of U.N.-African Union peacekeepers (UNAMID), visit a refugee camp and talk with some community leaders.
UNAMID's full presence remains elusive. Just over 9,000 troops and police have been deployed out of a targeted 26,000.
Western diplomats largely blame Khartoum for rejecting the deployment of some non-African contingents, although Washington has criticized the U.N. secretariat for moving too slowly.
U.N. peacekeeping officials say the deployment has also been slowed by the failure of troop contributors to provide helicopters and other hardware that UNAMID desperately needs.
'Living in Terror'
In a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush, actress Mia Farrow, head of the activist group Dream for Darfur, urged him to get personally involved "to end the genocide ... and make lasting peace in the region a legacy of your administration."
Farrow told reporters in a conference call China was "unwilling or unable" to use its influence to press Khartoum on Darfur and Bush must take the lead. "The people of Darfur have been living in terror for five years while the rest of the world has simply watched," she said.
Another top issue for the 15 council members will be Somalia, although they are not planning to go to the lawless Horn of Africa country due to the security risks involved.
But council envoys plan to meet with leaders of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the opposition and members of Somali civil society in Djibouti so they can get a clear picture of the situation.
"On Somalia, our biggest hope is that we will change the dynamic and really move the issue to a new level," South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo told Reuters. "I think it's very important, which is why the (TFG) president has written to say that he's coming (to Djibouti) himself."
While South Africa has long called for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to replace African Union forces in Somalia, known as AMISOM, most council members remain wary of sending troops to a country where they fear there is no peace to keep.
But council diplomats say there are signs that Somalia's key players are now working hard to restore order and they hope the Djibouti meetings will confirm this.
Human Rights Watch Africa director Georgette Gagnon sent a letter to the council urging to tell all parties in Sudan, Chad, Ivory Coast, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo that human rights abuses like killings, rapes, abductions and deployment of child soldiers will not be tolerated.
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