US to consider naming special envoy for Sudan – Rice

Mar 9, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday the U.S. will consider creating a new post of special envoy for Sudan to help accelerate an end to the continuing human tragedy there.

She made the comment in response to an impassioned appeal by Virginia Rep. Frank Wolfe for a more determined American effort to end the suffering in Darfur and protect the North-South peace agreement, which was signed last year.

Wolfe noted at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing that the North-South accord could be in peril because of recent attacks in southern Sudan that reportedly were carried out by government-backed militias.

Rice agreed that the agreement must be preserved.

“If it breaks apart then we’ve lost something very important,” Rice said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for U.N. peacekeepers to be deployed in Darfur to supplement African Union forces.

But Wolfe said the U.N. efforts in Darfur thus far have “fundamentally failed.”

It is time, Wolfe said, “to develop some passion on this issue.”

He noted that the peace breakthrough in the North-South conflict in Sudan was brought about by the efforts of a special U.S. envoy, former Sen. John Danforth.

Wolfe said someone of similar stature should be assigned to Sudan given the lack of progress toward genuine peace.

(ST/AP)