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Darfur Has Been Failed by International Community, Rice Says

25 June 2007

Darfur Has Been Failed by International Community, Rice Says

By Jim Fisher-Thompson
USINFO Staff Writer

Washington -- Speaking on the eve of a United Nations-sponsored meeting in Paris on the crisis in Darfur, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she is disappointed at the failure of the international community to bring an end to the violence that has killed hundreds of thousands while displacing millions in Sudan's western region.

With the Khartoum-government-sponsored violence now in its fifth year, Rice said:  "I will be very frank.  I do not think that the international community has really lived up to its responsibilities here."

Rice made her comments at a June 24 press conference following a private meeting in Paris with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner during which the crisis in Darfur was discussed.

She complimented Kouchner for his lifelong commitment to human rights and for hosting the conference on Darfur set for the next day.  Rice added that she was pleased at the "renewed push from France" on more concrete action.

Darfur, Rice told journalists, is "one of the true humanitarian disasters that we face in international politics today.  The international community has simply got to act more quickly and more responsibly to stop the killing and the devastation in Darfur."

In the three years since the United States said the killing by bands of roving militia called Jingaweit is genocide, the United States has continued "to try and rally the international community" to act more forthrightly, Rice said.

To that end, she said, the United States recently increased travel and financial sanctions against a number of Sudanese individuals and companies responsible for policies that continue and abet Jingaweit violence in Darfur.

Rice added, "We will look at [U.N.] resolutions, and we are indeed working with our colleagues on a resolution" leading to an end to the violence.

Ultimately, said Rice, "this is going to come down to will" by the international community "to insist that the government in Khartoum" permit the deployment of a U.N. hybrid force to augment the already 7,000 overstretched African Union peacekeepers in Darfur.

This is necessary, Rice said, because of Khartoum's inability or unwillingness to provide security for their own citizens and therefore "they must accept international help to do so."

The situation also requires international will to continue efforts on peace negotiations, she said.  The United States was very involved in bringing about a peace agreement in Abuja in 2006, but "it is obviously an agreement that is weakened by the absence of the participation of certain rebel groups, and we have to work on that piece as well," she said.

Commenting on China’s influence as one of Sudan's largest oil importers, Rice said China would attend the Paris meeting.  "They have special responsibilities, of course, as members of the Security Council and because of their special relationships in Africa.  And I think that they have recently begun to speak more forcefully about this issue, and I hope that that will continue and, indeed, intensify."

For more information on U.S. policy, see Darfur Humanitarian Emergency.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)