January 12, 2005 - 3:30 AM

Fighting raging in Darfur

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More police, human rights monitors and African Union peacekeepers are urgently needed in Sudan's
western Darfur region where fighting rages on despite a peace accord ending a separate conflict in southern Sudan, a senior U.N. official
says.

Jan Pronk, the special U.N. envoy for Sudan, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday arms were flooding into Darfur, violence was
spreading beyond camps for the homeless, banditry was on the rise and rebels were staging attacks near oil facilities.

"We may move into a period of intense violence unless swift action is taken," Pronk said. "I do not exclude the possibility that the signature
of the agreement (on the south) will be followed in the short term by an intensification of violence in and around Darfur."

Pronk said he had asked the United Nations to send in 117 human rights observers and the African Union hoped to soon deploy 150 of a
promised 800 police officers.

But more help was quickly needed and possible options included police officers from the European Union, more AU peacekeepers, and a
small civilian monitoring protection team similar to one now deployed in the south, Pronk said.

U.S. Ambassador John Danforth backed Pronk's proposals.

"I am for protecting the lives of the people of Darfur. I am for doing that on a very urgent basis," he told reporters. "We must be focused on
what practical steps can be taken."

SANCTIONS AN OPTION -- BUT NOT NOW

About 1.7 million people are homeless and 70,000 are estimated to have died in Darfur, a region the United Nations says is one of the
world's worst humanitarian crises.

The conflict was sparked in 2003 when rebel groups took up arms against the government in a struggle over resources and power.
Khartoum retaliated by arming nomad militias now accused of murder, rape and arson.

At the Security Council's urging, the African Union has pledged to deploy more than 3,000 troops and monitors in Darfur but to date has
sent in only a third of these and says it needs more outside help to send more.

The United States, which says genocide is taking place, wants the council to increase the pressure on the parties by imposing sanctions on
their leaders. But some members including Russia and China oppose such punitive measures.

Pronk said sanctions, while still an option, should not be imposed now as Khartoum had just responded to international wishes by signing
the peace agreement in the south ending Africa's longest civil war.

A new incentive to work for peace in Darfur would now come from Western nations' decision to withhold development aid until the Darfur
crisis was resolved, he said.

But the parties must be made aware that "there is not much time left," Pronk added.