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 JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - Veteran statesmen including former President Jimmy Carter appealed Tuesday for an immediate cease-fire in Darfur and called on the Sudanese government to drop all obstacles to the deployment of a U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force.
The group, known as the Elders, released a report of their findings from a trip to Darfur in September. They warned of spiraling violence in the western Sudanese region, including persistent rape of women and girls and attacks on AU peacekeepers now on the ground.
The statesmen stressed the importance of fully equipping a joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force and deploying it according to schedule. The U.N. has been wrangling with the Sudanese government for the past year over the deployment of a 26,000-member U.N.-AU peacekeeping force to replace an overwhelmed 7,000-member AU force currently on the ground.
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