Bush reaffirms US commitment to peace in Sudan, help for Darfur
July 20, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — President Bush met July 20 with a leader of Sudan’s new national unity government to discuss how the United States can help Sudan build on the political progress and extend the benefits of peace throughout the war-torn country.
“The United States is committed to helping the Sudanese people; we’re committed to making sure that the peace agreement that we helped you negotiate is implemented,” Bush said during a joint press availability at the White House with Salva Kiir, first vice president of the Government of National Unity of Sudan and president of Southern Sudan.
The president also noted that the United States is committed to aiding the people in Sudan’s western region of Darfur and said the two leaders strategized about what should be done in the area.
“The United Nations should be invited in,” the president said. “We talked about how best to get that done in order to save lives. Obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done.”
Kiir said the United States had helped negotiate the peace agreement in Sudan and that although the process “has taken a toll” on the Sudanese people, “this dream has been achieved, and we are now together in the implementation.”
He urged a continued focus on “so many other crises in Sudan” that need international attention as well.
“We are sure that we are going to solve the problem so that we don’t hear about rapes and killings in Darfur,” he said. “And all other parts of our country, like Eastern Sudan — we are now also negotiating in that province so that peace is also achieved all over the Sudan.”
COMPREHENSIVE PEACE AGREEMENT
Meeting with the Sudanese leader later in the day, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice underlined the U.S. commitment to a “free and prosperous and democratic Sudan.”
“We were pleased to play a role in the conclusion of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement for the people of Sudan that ended a very long civil war between North and South, and we are now committed to ending the violence in Darfur so that Sudan can be whole and at peace,” Rice said.
Kiir expressed his appreciation for having been invited to Washington to have discussions with the president, which he said included “the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement bringing peace to Darfur, to eastern Sudan, and making and transforming the country into a democratic, multiparty nation, which of course has been our goal for a very, very long time and we are committed to this.”
U.S. HELP FOR DARFUR
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer announced a U.S. commitment of $116 million to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) at the Sudan donors’ conference in Brussels on July 18, reaffirming that a successful resolution to the situation in Darfur is one of the Bush administration’s highest priorities.
That commitment of $116 million in assistance to AMIS through the end of September 2006 was the largest new pledge of support made at the Brussels donors conference and was in addition to $247 million in U.S. contributions to AMIS since 2004.
(Washington File)