VOA慢速英语20060916a

IN THE NEWS - Future of Peacekeeping in Darfur Remains¹ an Unsettled QuestionBy Brianna Blake

Broadcast: Saturday, September 16, 2006

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.


An African Union soldier in Darfur

Debate continued this week over what will happen at the end of the month when African Union peacekeepers may leave Darfur.

The African Union has a seven-thousand member force in the Darfur area of western Sudan. But violence has continued, and African Union officials say the force is lacking in money.

The United Nations has called on the government of Sudan to let a U.N. force replace the peacekeepers. Last month, the Security Council approved a resolution for twenty thousand U.N. troops and police to take over the operation.

But Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir opposes a U.N. force. On Thursday, he accused the United Nations of plans to recolonize Sudan.

Sudanese officials say African Union peacekeepers are welcome to stay -- but not as part of a U.N force. The government has said it will fight any U.N. forces that enter Darfur.

African Union officials plan to meet in New York on Monday. They will talk more about their decision to withdraw their soldiers from Darfur at the end of the month.

Leaders of a rebel group that signed a peace agreement in May have said they will renew fighting if the troops leave and are not replaced.

Fighting in Darfur began in two thousand three when local farmers rebelled. They accused the government of unfair treatment. Since then, an estimated two hundred thousand people have died in fighting between rebels and government-supported Arab Janjaweed fighters.

Estimates of the number killed by war and disease are as high as four hundred fifty thousand. More than two million people have been displaced from their homes.

Government troops recently launched a new offensive against rebel groups that refused to sign the peace agreement in May.

United Nations officials have warned that aid groups may have to leave Darfur because of the worsening security. The World Food Program estimated this week that more than three hundred fifty thousand people in north Darfur have gone without food aid for three months.

On Thursday, American U.N. Ambassador John Bolton led a special Security Council meeting on Darfur. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel said there must be an international force in Darfur -- if Sudan agrees or not. The Nazi² Holocaust³ survivor⁴ compared the situation to Rwanda, where intervention⁵ came too late to stop the killings⁶ in nineteen ninety-four.

Another speaker, actor George Clooney, also appealed for action. He visited Darfur in April. He called the conflict the first genocide of the twenty-first century.

But the ambassador of Qatar, Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, dismissed the idea of an actor advising what to do in Darfur. And he criticized those who blame the Sudanese government instead of the rebels for the conflict. Qatar is currently the only Arab member of the council. Reuters news agency said the ambassador also accused the United States of using the Darfur issue for political gain.

IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. I'm Steve Ember.

1 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

2 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

3 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

4 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

5 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

6 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。