Next week critical to progress in Sudan- US envoy
Dec 11, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The U.S. special envoy to Sudan said next week may see progress in the troubled west and south of the African country after he had what he called a productive meeting with President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Wednesday.
Envoy Andrew Natsios said that during the two-hour meeting with Bashir: “We agreed to disagree on history, but we have agreed that there are some steps that we can take in the next week that may make some progress.”
He said the meeting tackled the situation in the war-torn Darfur region in western Sudan and in the southern town of Malakal, where at least 150 people were killed in recent clashes between former rebels and the central government’s armed forces.
He said Washington hoped the Sudanese government would do its part with respect to the first two phases of U.N. support for the African Union (AU) force in Darfur.
“So the next week will be critically important for all of us to make this progress,” Natsios told reporters.
The first two phases refer to light and heavy U.N. support packages which Sudan has publicly agreed to accept. The Sudanese government says they include logistical and financial support.
Khartoum, however, has had strong reservations on the third and final phase, which refers to a “hybrid” U.N.-AU operation. The African organisation has conceded some ground to Sudan by saying the world body should only have a supporting role.
The Sudanese government has repeatedly rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution authorising the deployment of 22,500 U.N. troops and police to replace the underfunded 7,000-strong AU force, which has failed to stop the violence in Darfur.
Experts say around 200,000 people have been killed in the vast and remote region since rebels took up arms against the government in early 2003, charging it with neglect.
The United States describes the situation in Darfur as “genocide”. Khartoum rejects that and says only 9,000 have died.
Natsios said Bashir had also agreed to accelerate dealing with militias in southern Sudan, which have emerged as a threat to last year’s peace deal between the northern government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM).
A pro-government militia was blamed for instigating the clashes in Malakal but the armed forces later said the militia commander had become an army general after the peace agreement.
The U.S. envoy, who arrived in Khartoum on Saturday, said the United States would only take note of the actions, not the words of the Sudanese government.
“Making agreements is good but the only thing that is important to our government on the ground is actual actions … to change the situation,” he said.
The U.S. embassy in Khartoum said Natsios had cancelled his planned visit to Darfur.
“He decided that the security situation on the ground did not permit it (the visit) because of spreading chaos,” the embassy said in a statement.
(Reuters)