Rice tells Sudan to accept UN force, stop violence
Sept 11, 2006 (HALIFAX, Nova Scotia) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday she had urged Sudan’s government “in the strongest possible terms” to accept a U.N. force in its troubled Darfur region.
But Rice, who met Sudan’s Foreign Minister Lam Akol in Washington before leaving on a trip to Canada, did not appear to get any signal that Khartoum would drop its objections to such a force.
“I won’t say that we made progress but I will say that I delivered the strongest possible message in the strongest possible terms to the Sudanese government that any hope for bettering relations between the United States and the Sudan rests on Sudan’s cooperation (over a U.N. force),” Rice told reporters en route to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Asked what Akol told her during their meeting, she replied: “He brought hopes, for better relations between the United States and Sudan, and I told him in no uncertain terms that that wasn’t on the agenda unless the Sudan acted responsibly.”
Despite international pressure, Khartoum has rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last month to deploy more than 20,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops and police in Sudan’s remote west.
Last month, the State Department’s top diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, went to Khartoum to personally deliver a message from U.S. President George W. Bush to Sudan’s president urging him to accept a U.N. force in Darfur.
Rice said Akol had with him a letter to Bush from Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir but she did not know its contents.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said Rice had also voiced strong concern to Akol over the buildup of Sudan’s military in Darfur and reports of violent attacks on civilians.
The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur if the violence does not stop.
Tens of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million people forced from their homes in 3 1/2 years of fighting in Darfur, which Washington has labeled as genocide.
(Reuters)