SUDAN: Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has issued a sharp warning on the Darfur situation to the Sudanese government in advance of his expected meeting with Sudan's foreign minister, Lam Akol, at the United Nations General Assembly tomorrow.
Mr Ahern said that if the government in Khartoum refused to allow deployment of UN troops in Darfur, its members would be held collectively and individually responsible for the fate of the people of that region.
The humanitarian situation in Darfur was deteriorating and the African Union Mission in Sudan had to be reinforced, Mr Ahern said. "The Government firmly believes that the deployment of a UN peace-keeping mission is now essential if there is to be any prospect of improving security and promoting a political settlement in Darfur. It is regrettable that the Sudanese government continues to oppose the deployment of such a force, which was originally called for and is fully supported by the African Union."
The Minister is due to address the General Assembly tomorrow. He will also meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and take part in a series of bilaterals with the foreign ministers of Iran, Macedonia, Indonesia, Guatemala, Barbados and Turkey. Outside the UN context, he will meet the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, which is campaigning for undocumented Irish to be given legal status in the US.
Meanwhile, the US State Department has apologised to Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolas Maduro, who alleged that he was temporarily detained, threatened and deprived of travel documents on Saturday at JFK International Airport in New York.
Mr Maduro said that the episode was a "complex, shameful situation and an attack against international law", and he claimed it was connected with last week's speech at the general assembly in which Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, denounced President Bush as "the devil". He was finally allowed to board the aircraft but refused and returned to New York city.
The US Homeland Security Department denied that Mr Maduro's travel documents were taken from him and that he was arrested or assaulted. A spokesman said: "The State Department regrets this incident. The United States government apologised to foreign minister Maduro and the Venezuelan government."
In his speech President Chavez also held up a book by radical US academic Noam Chomsky entitled Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance. As a result, the book, published three years ago, has entered the top 10 list.