Diplomatic Pressure Intensifies on Sudan
23 September 2006
Time is running out on Darfur, says Rice
New York -- "Time is running out", said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who co-hosted with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller a Security Council ministerial meeting September 22 to discuss the worsening security and humanitarian situation in Darfur.
"The violence in Darfur is not subsiding; it is getting worse," Rice said. "The international community has pledged to end the conflict in Darfur. It pledged to help end the suffering of the people of Darfur. And we have committed to a course of action that can achieve these goals. Now we must match the strength of our convictions with the will to realize them.
"This is a profound test for the international community, and we must show that we are equal to it," Rice told the group of foreign ministers and envoys of 27 countries, the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union and the Arab League attending the opening of the U.N. General Assembly.
According to the secretary, the government has launched a military offensive in Darfur and the security situation is deteriorating. The violence has left hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children stranded in camps without access to new supplies of food, water and medicines because international aid workers cannot reach them.
"For these people, and for so many others, our support is truly a matter of life or death," Rice said at the opening of the 90-minute meeting.
While the United States, the United Nations and other donors are increasing aid, without greater security and stability the humanitarian effort "cannot and will not succeed," the secretary said.
Khartoum had refused to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force of more than 20,000 troops and police taking over from the African Union to provide security.
Rice said the intention of the international community "is not to impinge upon Sudan's sovereignty" by sending in U.N. peacekeepers. "But let there be no doubt about our resolve. As President Bush said on Tuesday, ‘If the Sudanese Government does not approve the peacekeeping force quickly, the United Nations must find a way to act,’" she said.
Afterward, Rice said she believes there would be "maximum effort" by those at the meeting to pressure Sudan to accept the U.N. force. However, she added, "there are other measures at the disposal of the international community should we not be able to get the agreement of Sudan."
Briefing journalists after the meeting, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said that there was unanimous agreement on the need for the transition to a U.N. force, and the group focused on diplomatic efforts to win Sudan's acceptance.
"Every country underscored the unacceptability of the situation . . . and that we need to work together, intensify our diplomacy to convince President (Omar) al-Bashir to allow the U.N. transition to take place, and that we should work very much in support of the African Union both in terms of its peacekeeping forces but also its diplomatic efforts to try to bring pressure to bear on President Bashir," Frazer said.
ONE LAST DIPLOMATIC EFFORT
The AU decision to stay in Darfur until the end of the year instead of leaving October 1 should be seen as an opportunity "to give one last diplomatic effort" to convincing al-Bashir of the necessity of the transition, the assistant secretary said.
There was no discussion of "whether there would be greater pressure in sanctions or whether there would be greater pressure in incentives," Frazer said.
Andrew Natsios, President Bush's special envoy for Sudan, said that despite public comments by al-Bashir, there were enough indications from Sudan "to work with in terms of fashioning some kind of compromise."
Natsios said that "a number of things [are] going on right now" but refused to discuss them saying "there is some time for public statements, some time for quiet diplomacy."
Planning and securing commitments of troops and equipment for the U.N. force must continue in parallel with diplomacy, Natsios also said. "If we do these [things] sequentially, then we'll be here forever. And people are dying now . . . we need to resolve this now."
The ministers are concerned that Darfur is facing a larger-scale humanitarian disaster than the one in 2003 and 2004, Natsios said.
More than 400,000 have lost their lives, some 2 million more have been driven from their homes in Darfur, and nearly 3 million depend on international aid for food, shelter and basic health needs since 2003, according to the U.N.
In an official statement afterwards, Rice and Moeller said that "we stand united in our commitment to help the people of Darfur achieve peace through the restoration of stability."
"The killings, violence and atrocities must end. The intolerable suffering of the people of Darfur must stop," they said.
Rice and Moeller called on Sudan to "accept the consensus of the international community" and accept the U.N. peacekeepers as "the only responsible action."
At the United Nations, the Security Council extended the mandate of the U.N. Mission in Sudan for two weeks to build up momentum and pressure on the government in Khartoum “to accept the inevitability that there is gong to be a U.N. peacekeeping force," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said.
Secretary Rice’s remarks before the Security Council on Darfur and her comments with Foreign Minister Moeller after the meeting, as well as the transcript of Ambassador Natsios and Assistant Secretary Frazer’s briefing can be found on the State Department Web site.
For more 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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