US Rice issues sharp warning to Sudan government
Sept 27, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday called for an immediate cease-fire in Sudan’s western Darfur region and urged the Khartoum government to immediately and unconditionally accept a United Nations peacekeeping force there.
She said the government faces a choice between cooperation with the U.N. or confrontation. She warned of unspecified consequences if the government chose confrontation.
In a speech to the Africa Society’s National Summit on Africa, Rice said that if Sudan “works with the United Nations and welcomes a U.N. force into Darfur then it will find a dedicated partner in the United States.”
She said President George W. Bush has told Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir the United States was prepared to examine all aspects of its relationship with Sudan. U.S. lawmakers are close to approving sanctions against the Khartoum government.
“If the Sudanese government chooses confrontation – if it continues waging war against its own citizens, challenging the African Union, undermining its peacekeeping force and threatening the international community – then the regime in Khartoum will be held responsible and it alone will bear the consequences,” Rice said.
She said the Sudanese government wants a stable country and a good relationship with the international community, but its behavior is creating exactly the opposite result: isolation and instability.
President Bush used his address to the U.N. General Assembly last week to announce a new envoy for Sudan and to decry the violence.
Fighting between government-backed Arab militias and non-Arab rebels in Darfur has left more than 200,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced since 2002.
More than two years have passed since the U.S. government labeled the atrocities in Sudan as genocide, but the killing has accelerated in recent weeks as the Sudanese government has launched a new offensive.
A poorly funded African Union force in Darfur has been mostly unable to contain the violence and the U.N. Security Council has sought to take over the operation to provide better resources. Sudan opposes a U.N. takeover.
(AP/ST)