Fasher, Sudan, June 3, SPA -- A top U.S. diplomat visited the troubled Darfur region Friday, hours after pressing Sudan's president to accept NATO support for peacekeepers to stabilize the area, The Associated Press reported. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick traveled to Darfur in a show of support, meeting with the head of the African Union mission in Sudan and visiting some of its 2,200 peacekeepers stationed there to calm the province, scene of one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. "The African Union team is playing a critical leadership role in what we all know is a terrible problem," Zoellick said in this dusty, desert region. Zoellick said Khartoum had to stop its allied militia from attacking civilians. "They have the responsibility in the Sudanese territory to disarm the militia," said Zoellick, who met with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir on Thursday at a regional summit in Rwanda. In Rwanda he said he'd encouraged Sudan "to welcome the support of NATO so that it helps bring in more A.U. troops more quickly and support the logistic side, am happy they have done that."
