US works on international plan for Darfur
Nov 1, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — The United States is trying to pull together an international plan for Darfur that would use carrots and not sticks to persuade Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeepers in its war-torn western region, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.
The official also said Sudan was trying to delay action on Darfur by asking many nations to offer proposals. Washington wants a single plan agreed on by the United States and key Arab, European and other nations.
“They are playing everybody against each other to cause confusion. That has been their standard operating procedure for 17 years,” said the senior official, who asked not to be named because diplomacy was at a sensitive stage.
“We need one, not 10 proposals,” he added.
The United States’ special envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, on Tuesday gave President George W. Bush a grim assessment of what was happening in Darfur, where several hundred thousand people have been killed and more than 2.5 million people displaced by the conflict.
Sudan has flatly rejected a 22,500-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur, saying it amounted to colonialism.
Faced with this resistance, the Bush administration is now working on a specific plan for Darfur that it hopes other nations will support, particularly Arab countries that hold more sway with Khartoum.
NOT SANCTIONS, NOT STICKS
“We are putting a package together. It is not sanctions, it is not sticks,” said the U.S. official. “It deals with (U.N.) troops and how to get them in and other elements of a peaceful settlement,” added the official, who declined to provide specific details as he said these were still being worked out.
Sudan experts said there were differences within the Bush administration over exactly how to proceed and whether punitive measures as well as incentives should be included.
In September, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said one incentive could be improved bilateral ties.
“If the government of Sudan chooses cooperation — if it works with the United Nations and welcomes the U.N. force into Darfur, then it will find a dedicated partner in the United States,” she told the Africa Society in Washington.
The United States hopes Arab nations such as Egypt will play a lead role in pressuring Khartoum to accept international troops to bolster about 7,000 under-funded, struggling African troops on the ground in Darfur.
A Western diplomat said international discussions were at a delicate stage but the common view was there must be a new approach to Darfur.
“You don’t just go in and wave sticks,” said the diplomat, adding that Arab participation was essential.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to give any details of the new Darfur plan but said the United States was working hard to step up diplomacy with the Arab League and Arab countries in general over Darfur.
“They (Arab states) certainly have channels of communication into Sudan and that regime as well,” he said.
Sudan expert John Prendergast said it was clear that Bush wanted real action on Darfur and that there needed to be punitive measures included in any package.
Sticks could include moving against Sudanese businesses controlled by senior officials and the threat of providing intelligence to the International Criminal Court to accelerate investigations against Sudanese government officials suspected of committing atrocities in Darfur, Prendergast said.
(Reuters)