US Rice: World, particularly China, must press Sudan on Darfur

Feb 16, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice singled out China on Friday as she urged nations to press Sudan to resolve violence in its troubled Darfur region.

Rice told U.S. lawmakers that Andrew Natsios, special U.S. envoy to Sudan, had made progress during a trip to Beijing to talk about Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed in four years of conflict. Critics are pushing China to use its considerable leverage in Sudan to press for an end to the crisis.

“We do need more help from the international community. We especially need help from those countries that seem sometimes to want to shield Sudan,” Rice said, then mentioning China.

Some U.S. lawmakers have accused China of supporting Sudan’s government through its huge oil purchases while ignoring the violence in Darfur. Besides the widespread killing, millions of Darfurians have been driven from their homes, many into neighboring countries.

Rice said progress by China on the Darfur front included President Hu Jintao’s comments, during a recent trip to Sudan, about getting international peacekeeping forces into the country.

Violence has only worsened in Darfur since the government and one rebel group signed a peace agreement last May. The Arab-led Khartoum government is accused of masterminding a brutal counterinsurgency against the region’s ethnic African tribes. The U.S. labels it genocide.

(AP)