US groups urge appointment of special envoy to Sudan
June 5, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — Rights groups urged the United States to appoint a special envoy to Sudan and to exert more pressure on the government in Khartoum to implement the recently signed peace accord on Darfur.
“The purpose of a special envoy is full-time attention on the subject, the urgent issues in Darfur and peace in Sudan,” said Michael Cromartie, of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Cromartie spoke during a conference on Sudan at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
He and other conference participants said that a special envoy would help ensure the timely and complete implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in January 2005 between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), and the recently signed Darfur Peace Agreement designed to end atrocities in the war-torn Darfur region.
“Some say there are already too many cooks in the kitchen,” Cromartie said, referring to the idea of an envoy. “In this case I think the more cooks the better.
“This issue needs constant attention and transparency, we need a chief cook to help keep the heat on in the kitchen and that’s what special envoys do.”
He noted that 100 members of Congress had sent a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging the appointment of an envoy for the war-shattered country, where up to 300,000 people have died and 2.4 million have been displaced in Darfur since February 2003.
The idea, however, met with a cool reception from the State Department’s top official in charge of Africa.
“It seems to be that in international politics now, the answer to a problem is a special envoy, I doubt that,” said Jendayi Frazer, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. “Just throwing a special envoy seems to be the way to solve the problem. I for one reject that notion.”
Conference participants also said that unless Washington exerts more pressure on the Sudanese government to disarm the Janjaweed militia and to ensure the protection of refugees who return to their homes, there was little chance of peace in the country.
The Janjaweed have been fighting alongside government forces against the rebels in Darfur.
They added it was essential that a United Nations force replace African Union troops currently deployed in Sudan by October 1, as called for in the recent peace accord.
“More important than anything else, we have to build US leverage,” said John Prendergast, of the International Crisis Group, an independent organization committed to resolving conflicts around the globe. “The current policy of constructive engagement isn’t working with this particular set of mass murderers in Khartoum.
“We need to increase pressure.”
Prendergast said targeted sanctions and the threat of hauling some of those behind the atrocities in Sudan before the International Criminal Court could help build leverage.
“If we don’t increase pressure, we are not going to have peace in Sudan,” he said.
To read the full text of the Press Release please go at http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=16040
(ST)