US Senate bill to create no-fly zone over Darfur

Sept 7, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — A leading Democratic senator submitted a resolution calling for the appointment of a special US envoy to Sudan and the creation of a no-fly zone in the country’s violence-wracked Darfur region.

“The situation in Darfur has spiraled out of control. Since the signing of the Darfur Peace Agreement on May 5, violence has increased exponentially,” said US Senator Joseph Biden.

“Fifty thousand people have been displaced in the past two months. Two hundred women have been raped over the past five weeks — two hundred more have been violently assaulted,” Biden said. “We cannot stand by and let further tragedy unfold.”

Biden said the international community must also step up and apply renewed pressure on Khartoum.

“The UN Security Council has finally done the right thing by authorizing a peacekeeping force for Darfur. The international community must make clear to the Sudanese government that it will not allow Khartoum to reject the deployment of that force,” he said.

Biden’s resolution urges the international community to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on the government of Sudan.

It further calls on US President George W. Bush to appoint a special envoy for Sudan, and calls for a special session of the UN Human Rights Council to address Darfur.

The combined effect of war and famine has left up to 300,000 people dead in Darfur and displaced 2.5 million in three and half years of civil war pitting the Sudanese government and allied militias against ethnic minority rebels.

The United States has described Khartoum’s repression of the Darfur uprising that broke out in February 2003 as a genocide.

A peace agreement was signed in Abuja on May 5 by the government and the main Darfur rebel faction.

But two other rebel groups that took part in the talks in the Nigerian capital have rejected the agreement and violence has continued unabated in Darfur, hampering relief efforts.

(ST/AFP)