US envoy to start seven-day visit to Sudan

Oct 11, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The Envoy of US President Bush to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, is expected to arrive in the country on the next two days on a seven-day visit.

The visit is the first since Natsios’s appointment as special envoy.

The US President George W. Bush has appointed on 19 Andrew S. Natsios as the President’s Special Envoy for Sudan. He announced his nomination during a speech before the UN General Assembly.

The US envoy would meet a number of government officials and visit Darfur region and Juba.

The purpose of the visit is to look into the situation in Darfur and consult with officials regarding developments in Darfur especially, and the situation in the country generally.

Natsios’s mandate will include facilitating the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the Darfur Peace Agreement, reviewing the state of US-Sudan relations, and making recommendations for advancing US policy towards Sudan.

Natsios said he had put in his application on Wednesday 4 October for a visa to go to Sudan and was optimistic it would be granted.

One of his main goals will be to convince Sudan’s government to drop its objections to a U.N. force going into Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died since 2003 and over 2.5 million have been displaced by the fighting.

After a meeting with President Bush earlier this month Natsios said “I’ve been going to Sudan now for 17 years. I know leaders in all regions of the country. And I’m going to use contacts and that history to move this process along.”

Last week Sudan welcomed the US envoy visit. Khartoum called on Natsios to focus his mission in Sudan on supporting “the Darfur Peace Agreement” which the Sudanese government signed with a main Darfur group in May. It also asked the U.S. envoy to recognize the basic role of the African Union, address the issues of development and rehabilitation in Darfur and rectify the negative impact of past UN resolutions.

(ST)