WASHINGTON – President Bush called on Monday for the United Nations to take over peacekeeping in the Darfur region of Sudan and promised to expedite food aid.
Meanwhile in Darfur, residents of a refugee camp hacked an African Union translator to death Monday shortly after the U.N. humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, rushed out of the same camp when demonstrators attacked another translator in his entourage, U.N. spokesmen said.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York said he was told there were two attacks.
The first attack was against a nongovernmental organization staffer, which prompted the departure of Egeland and his staff, Dujarric said. A reporter in the camp said Egeland initially was met by a huge crowd chanting pro-U.N., pro-U.S. and anti-government slogans.
But an apparent misunderstanding of what an Oxfam translator said led the crowd to accuse the translator of supporting the feared Janjaweed, the pro-government militia blamed for widespread atrocities in Darfur, Dujarric said.
The second attack occurred after Egeland left, when the African Union compound in the camp was destroyed by its residents, he said. “It is our understanding that an African Union translator was hacked to death,” Dujarric said.
Bush on Monday said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would go to the United Nations today to press for a new U.N. resolution increasing peacekeepers.
Bush also urged Congress to act on a request for $225 million in emergency food aid for Darfur, and said he was ordering the emergency purchase of 40,000 metric tons of food and was dispatching five ships to carry it to the region.
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