US will strengthen AU work in Darfur – official
Feb 3, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — The United States, which assumed the chairmanship of the U.N. Security Council for the month of February, will use its position “to try to strengthen the African Union’s work in Darfur to ensure that [it has] the resources necessary to provide for humanitarian access as well as to try to protect civilians and, again, to arrest the deterioration,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told the news media February 3 at a State Department briefing.
Frazier also told reporters the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in Sudan will benefit Darfur and bring the country’s civil war to a close as well.
Recently back from the region, Frazer said the CPA “provides the framework for achieving [a] political solution on Darfur.”
“There are many tragedies in Darfur, and ultimately what we need to arrest the deteriorating situation, the security environment there, is a peace agreement, a peace solution,” Frazer continued. “We’re continuing to work with the AU [African Union] mediator, Dr. Salim Salim, in Abuja, Nigeria, to … find a solution to the crisis in Darfur through a power-sharing and wealth-sharing agreement that also has some arrangements for security.”
Although the Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed the CPA January 9, 2005, ending more than 20 years of civil war between Sudan’s predominantly Muslim North and the non-Muslim South, ongoing violence and sporadic atrocities continue to threaten and displace the residents of the country’s western region of Darfur. AU-mediated peace negotiations are going on in Abuja, with the seventh and latest round of talks, which began on November 28, 2005, having resumed after a holiday break on January 15.
Speaking of the current visit to Washington of Southern Sudan Minister of Roads and Transport Rebecca Garang, Frazer said the multiple tragedies in Darfur have “overshadowed the North-South Peace Agreement and the important work that’s still required to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. And I think that Rebecca Garang’s visit here helps us to continue to focus on trying to consolidate the peace that had ended a 22-year civil war that killed over 2 million people.”
The United States continues to have three major objectives in Darfur, she said. “One, and most importantly, trying to get that peace agreement; secondly, trying to ensure humanitarian access; and also trying to continue to push all of the parties to respect their cease- fire and to strengthen the African Union’s mission so that it can better secure civilians and provide for that humanitarian access.”
She said in Sudan there has been “a fraying of the security environment and violations of the cease-fire on the part of all parties — the rebels, SLA [Sudan Liberation Army], the JEM [Justice and Equality Movement], as well as the government of Sudan and its militia forces, particularly the Jingaweit.”
Regarding the planned transition of the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) to a blue-hatted U.N. mission, Frazer said the AU has been “highly successful in diminishing the large-scale organized violence in Darfur.” She added that the AU Peace and Security Council agreed on January 12, “in principle, to seek a transition from the AMIS force to a U.N. operation within the framework of partnership between the AU, the U.N. and their respective members.” It is not a new idea, but one that was envisioned since the beginning of the AMIS operation in August 2004, she added.
“We’re also very pleased that Congo-Brazzaville President Sassou-Nguesso is the new president of the AU, and his country is also now a member of the [U.N.] Security Council. And so we do believe that the AU and the U.N. Security Council, through its president, will be able to work very closely together to try to secure the environment and bring about a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Darfur.
“We will support the AU’s effort. As I said, we’ll use our February presidency of the Security Council to achieve and improve security, to improve the humanitarian situation, and to continue to support the AU’s mediation to get a peaceful solution.”
(Washington File)
A transcript of the briefing is available on the State Department Web site : http://www.state.gov/p/af/rls/rm/2006/60376.htm