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 UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council voted to send 10,700 peacekeepers to Sudan to monitor a peace deal ending a 21-year-civil war, but left contentious issues of sanctions and how best to punish war criminals in the Darfur region for later debate.
The unanimous vote on the U.S.-backed resolution creating the United Nations' 17th active peacekeeping mission is the first significant Security Council action on Sudan since a U.N.-backed panel declared in late January that crimes against humanity — but not genocide — occurred in Darfur.
The peace deal that the new force will monitor is not connected to Darfur. But the council hopes the move will help bring about an end to the violence in Darfur, where the number of dead from a conflict between government-backed militias and rebels is now estimated at 180,000.
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