Zoellick Heads to Sudan To Continue Push for Peace
04 November 2005
Fourth trip to region begins November 6, with first stop in Nairobi, Kenya
By Susan Ellis
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick’s November 6 trip to Sudan – his fourth visit to the troubled nation -- reflects "the strong engagement of the United States and the priority of Sudan for President Bush and for his administration," Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told reporters at the State Department November 4.
"The basic purpose of his trip," Frazer said, "is to push for implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) as well as to address the situation in Darfur,” Frazer said.
Zoellick’s visit to Sudan will include stops Khartoum, Juba, and Darfur, she said.
The deputy secretary is "following up on the meetings that have taken place here in Washington, where the First Vice President of the Government of National Unity Salva Kiir was ... meeting with members [of Congress] on [Capitol] Hill, meeting with the administration [Vice President Cheney and other officials]," Frazer said. (See related article.)
She said the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is seen by the United States as "interconnected with ending the conflict in Darfur." That is because the peace agreement "provides a framework for power sharing and wealth sharing that can be used to support bringing the rebels in Darfur into a unified government, a government of national unity," she added.
"We have framework in the CPA, so it's critical to show the success of that CPA so that it will actually give more confidence to those rebels that it will work, [that] the power sharing and the wealth sharing are realities."
Zoellick also will attend a conference Nairobi, Kenya, designed to bring together Mini Minawi and Abdel Wahed, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) rebels, as well as many of the commanders, so that they can come up with a common negotiating position, Frazer said.
In Khartoum, Zoellick will push for a common negotiating position between the National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), "so both sides have unified positions, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement being the framework," she said.
In Juba, Zoellick "will further engage on U.S. support for the government of Sudan, trying to help with unity among the various militias and rebels in the South, as well as to help stand up that government of Southern Sudan by providing assistance,” Frazer said.
The United States sees a strong government of Southern Sudan as "necessary for the transformation of the government of national unity as a whole in the transformation of Sudan and providing that vision that Dr. [John] Garang had of a unified and peaceful Sudan," Frazer said.
Garang, longtime leader of the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army, became Sudan's first vice president in July under the government of national unity, but was killed three weeks later in a helicopter crash.
Asked whether Darfur can look for "tangible results" to come about in the near future through the peace agreement, Frazer said that the United States views "tangible results" as "the fact that the Southerners have the first vice president of the country now sitting in Khartoum with decision-making power; that the Southerners have a position in that government of national unity. That would seem to be a tangible result, that they have representation in the National Assembly … in the presidency and in the executive. So on a political front, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement has already delivered, in many ways, tangible results."
She said that on the economic front, "absolutely it's the case that we need to support the development of the South." She said she does not believe that that will take "many, many years." Getting basic services to the Southerners should be able to be done on a more rapid scale, she said, "particularly as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is implemented."
Frazer stressed that the peace agreement is "delivering wealth" to the Southerners and that there is a need to establish the boundary commission to help define what the revenue-sharing, wealth-sharing percentages actually are. "That money will go to the Southerners; they're not simply relying on donor assistance, but actually the resources from the oil, for the first time in over 20-some years, will be received by the South and the Southern government, which then can be used to provide those tangible results."
Zoellick, she said, has had "several phone calls with Taha [the second vice president of Sudan’s national unity government, Ali Osman Taha] to get the Canadian armored personnel carriers there to try to improve the mobility of the [African Union peacekeepers] so that they can carry out patrols” in Darfur.
"We've built 32 base camps; we've provided about $160 million to support other [African Mission in Sudan] peacekeeping missions -- you know we airlifted the Rwandans in there. So we have to keep building that capability of the African Union to try to create an environment of peace while we work for the ultimate solution, which is a political settlement."
For additional information, see Darfur Humanitarian Emergency.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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