Bush urges UN to move quickly on Darfur
Sept 19, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — President George W. Bush challenged world leaders on Tuesday to move quickly to get peacekeepers into Sudan’s Darfur region, saying lives are at stake as well as the credibility of the United Nations.
Bush also urged the United Nations to support moderates in the Middle East against extremists, because “when people have a voice in their future, they are less likely to blow themselves up in suicide attacks.”
But Bush’s annual address to the U.N. General Assembly, four years after making the case for war against Iraq, was notably less confrontational than in past speeches when he questioned the organization’s relevance.
Nevertheless, Bush sounded a note of frustration at the U.N.’s inability to get a peacekeeping force into Sudan’s devastated Darfur region.
Under pressure from human rights groups and the U.S. Congress to do more for Darfur, he named Andrew Natsios, former head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as U.S. special envoy for the region.
The United Nations passed a resolution last month to send 20,000 peacekeepers to Darfur, where about 7,000 African Union troops have been battling to keep the peace in an area the size of France. Sudan has so far refused to accept a U.N. force.
“If the Sudanese government does not approve the peacekeeping force quickly, the U.N. must act,” Bush said. Addressing himself to the people of Darfur, he added: “Your lives and the credibility of the United Nations is at stake.”
In three years of fighting in Darfur an estimated 200,000 people have been killed and millions forced from their homes. Bush said the people of Darfur have suffered “unspeakable violence, and my nation has called these atrocities what they are — genocide.”
TENSIONS WITH IRAN, SYRIA
The president, of whom many world leaders remain skeptical for starting a war in Iraq without U.N. backing, voiced support for Iraqis’ attempt at stability with sectarian violence leaving dozens dead every day, but said Iraqi leaders must “make difficult choices to bring security and prosperity.”
Against a backdrop of war in Iraq, tensions with Iran over its nuclear ambitions and with Syria over its support for Hizbollah, Bush sought to assure people in the Middle East that the United States is not at war against Islam.
“My country desires peace. Extremists in your midst spread propaganda claiming that the West is engaged in a war against Islam. This propaganda is false.”
“We respect Islam, but we will protect our people from those who pervert Islam to sow death and destruction.”
Delaware Democratic Sen. Joe Biden said Bush must share the blame for the troubled state of the Middle East, saying the president had failed to do the hard work of building democratic institutions and actively supporting moderates.
This failure, he said, “has mostly served to legitimize already militarized groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), the No. 2 Democrat in the House of Representatives, saw a political connection to Bush’s appearance.
His Republicans are trying to hang on to control of the U.S. Congress in November elections and he received a boost with a USA Today/Gallup poll that put his job approval at 44 percent, his highest rating in a year.
“The president’s words need to be matched by sustained diplomatic engagement with our allies, and directly with our adversaries when necessary — not just when elections are near, but all the time,” she said.
(Reuters)