EU urges more diplomacy on Darfur

The European Union on Tuesday urged Sudan to stop the growing violence in Darfur but stopped short of threatening sanctions to force Khartoum to allow UN peacekeepers into the troubled region.

Pretty please...with a cherry on top...make the evil doers stop...please please please?

Some 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced by the three-year-old conflict in the western Sudanese region. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank said last week that diplomacy over Darfur had failed and the international community must now consider sanctions against Sudan to pressure it into accepting UN peacekeepers.

Sanctions, yes! If you don't do what we tell you, your people will be starved and displaced.

But on Tuesday, the EU supported further diplomatic efforts to try to persuade Khartoum to accept UN peacekeepers. "The (EU) Council observed the need to address the Sudanese government's possible concerns in relation to the deployment of a UN force in Darfur," EU foreign ministers said at their regular monthly briefing.

Play nice, or we'll take our ball and go home.

US President George W Bush last week signed a law imposing sanctions against those responsible for genocide and war crimes in Sudan. "The (EU) Council emphasized that a UN operation is the only realistic option for a sustainable, long-term peacekeeping operation in Darfur," foreign ministers said in a statement adopted at their regular monthly meeting. Ministers "called for an immediate end to the ongoing violation of human rights and international humanitarian law."

Well, yes, of course we'll stop being bad to our citizens. Thank you ever so much for pointing out what a naughty country we have been. (Yes, read a GREAT DEAL of sarcasm!)