U.N. envoy admits defeat in peace efforts in Sudan

Associated Press
Jan. 14, 2006 12:00 AM

UNITED NATIONS - The top U.N. envoy in Sudan declared Friday that efforts to bring peace to Sudan's Darfur region have failed, and he called for a U.N. peacekeeping force of up to 20,000 troops to disarm marauding militias and provide security so 2 million refugees can return home.

Jan Pronk said an ethnic cleansing campaign in 2003 and 2004 had been successful and a larger, more sophisticated and mobile force was needed to help end the continuing rapes and killings and stop the groups of 500 to 1,000 militia on camel and horseback that still attack villages at least once a month.

"Looking back at three years of killings and cleansing in Darfur, we must admit that our peace strategy so far has failed," he told the U.N. "All we did was picking up the pieces and muddling through, doing too little too late."