US urges China to pressure Sudan over Darfur peacekeepers
May 10, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The United States welcomed on Thursday China’s decision to appoint a veteran diplomat as Africa envoy to focus on ending the crisis in Darfur, but it urged Beijing to do more to press Sudan to allow peacekeepers into the war-torn region.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the decision to have China’s new special representative for Africa focus first on efforts to end violence in Darfur was “another sign of how seriously they take this” issue.
He urged Beijing to use the initiative to convince the Sudan government to drop its resistance to allowing a UN-mandated and led peacekpeeping force into Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died in four years of civil strife.
“We would hope they use every bit of their leverage with the Sudanese government to convince them that it’s the right thing to do, it’s in everybody’s interest, that the UN force be allowed to get into Darfur,” he said.
China has been criticized for not using its clout as a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council and a top investor and oil purchaser in Sudan to force President Omar al-Beshir to end the Darfur violence, much of which is blamed on government-backed Arab militia.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice voiced Washington’s frustration during testimony to Congress on Thursday, although she also acknowledged new signs of a Chinese willingness to be more active on the issue.
“I wish that we could have a somewhat stronger Chinese role in Sudan,” she said.
“I think that would be very helpful and we have encouraged the Chinese to be much more active with the Sudanese to get them to accept the UN forces,” she said.
“It’s one of the most important things that they can do. They say they will, and there’s some evidence of that,” she said.
China’s foreign ministry announced earlier Thursday the appointment of Ambassador Liu Guijin as the government’s special envoy to Africa, where Beijing is playing a growing economic and diplomatic role.
“The Darfur issue raises a lot of concerns in the international community, the first task of the special representative will focus on the Darfur issue,” a ministry spokeswoman said.
Earlier this week China also confirmed that it would contribute a unit of military engineers to the UN peacekeeping project in Darfur.
The moves came after more than 100 US lawmakers signed a strongly worded letter calling on China’s President Hu Jintao to take immediate action to stop bloodshed in Darfur.
“The international community is stepping up to its responsibilities, but unless China does its part to ensure that the government of Sudan accepts the best and most reasonable path to peace, history will judge your government as having bank-rolled a genocide,” the letter to Hu read.
(AFP)