US Senate allocates $60M for UN peacekeepers in Darfur

June 15, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Senate on Thursday allocated $60 million for a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

The money is part of the $94.5 billion emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and aid to Gulf Coast hurricane victims. President George W. Bush has said he will sign the bill into law.

The Darfur money was included in an amendment sponsored by two Democratic senators and one Republican. To pay for the peacekeeping mission, funding for a huge U.S. embassy project in Baghdad was cut.

But first, the Sudanese government must give its approval. It has so far been reluctant, but also wary of directly opposing the international community when both the African Union and the U.N. say U.N. peacekeepers are needed.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., one of the sponsors, said he hoped the peacekeeping mission would bring peace and stability to the region. In 2004, Congress enacted a measure to stop trade and separately approved a resolution declaring that the atrocities in western Sudan were acts of genocide.

“Genocide has no political affiliation, and today both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives stood together in unity to reject the atrocities that have beset those in the Sudan,” Menendez said.

Fighting began in February 2003 when rebels from black African tribes took up arms, complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government.

The government has been accused of unleashing Arab tribal militia against civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson. At least 180,000 people have died – many from hunger and disease. More than 2 million have fled their homes, many to neighboring countries where stability has been threatened by Darfur’s chaos.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R.-Kan., one of the Senate’s leading figures on Darfur, said funding a peacekeeping mission will help end the violence in the region.

“The situation is simple: if we don’t act, people will die,” Brownback said.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., called the additional funding a step in the right direction but said more work is needed to end the violence.

“My hope is that as we go forward, the administration and other nations will work together to push the Sudanese to admit a United Nations peacekeeping force,” Obama said.

A U.N. Security Council delegation earlier this week wrapped up its Africa trip with a sense of urgency for finding ways to end the conflict. Members were warned during their final stop in Congo that all of central Africa could be destabilized by the fighting in Darfur.

The council is expected to vote for a peacekeeping force to take over from a 7,000 member African Union contingent in Darfur.

(ST/AP)