UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday called for urgent action to prevent genocide, by political and, if necessary, by military means.
With the past decade providing "especially shameful" examples of genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, Annan called for, among other measures, a committee made up of parties to the Genocide Convention to review reports and recommend action and appointment of a special rapporteur to deal directly with the Security Council.
The rapporteur's role would be to make clear the link, often ignored until too late, between massive and systematic violations of human rights and threats to international peace and security, Annan said.
His remarks were released at U.N. world headquarters in New York.
"Genocide, whether imminent or ongoing, is practically always, if not by definition, a threat to the peace," the secretary-general told the Stockholm International Forum on Preventing Genocide, attended by Sweden's Prime Minister Goran Pedersson. "It must be dealt with as such by strong and united political action and, in extreme cases, by military action."
