Sudan must improve Darfur situation to upgrade relations – US

April 16, 2007 (KHARTOUM, Sudan) — Sudan must improve the humanitarian situation in Darfur, stop harassing aid workers, and allow U.N. peacekeepers to deploy if it wants to upgrade relations with the United States, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said Monday.

Speaking at the end of a three-day visit to Sudan, Negroponte criticized the government’s actions in the western Sudanese province that has been wracked by rebellion and counter-insurgency for the past four years.

“The denial of visas, the harassment of aid workers and other measures have created the impression that the government of Sudan is engaged in a deliberate campaign of intimidation,” Negroponte told reporters.

The number of refugees is increasing in Darfur and the government is still hindering international efforts to help them, he said. “When it comes to humanitarian access, the government of Sudan’s record is not encouraging.”

Negroponte said his talks with President Omar al-Bashir and other officials had been positive, but Washington’s relations with Sudan would improve only when Khartoum grants NGOs better access to Darfur and accepts U.N. plans to deploy large numbers of peacekeepers there.

Sudan has complained that Washington did not meet its expectations of better relations after it made peace with the southern Sudanese rebels in 2005.

Negroponte spoke before heading to Chad for the next leg of a regional tour that will also take him to Libya, where he is also expected to push for the U.N. plan on Darfur.

His press conference came shortly after the official Saudi Press Agency reported that al-Bashir had called the king of Saudi Arabia to announce he has signed a joint agreement with the United Nations and the African Union that defines their respective roles in Darfur.

The U.N. did not immediately confirm the report, and Negroponte declined to comment on it.

The United States is holding off on imposing sanctions against Sudan to allow time for the government to decide to accept the U.N. plan, under which a joint force of 22,000 U.N. and African Union peacekeepers would be deployed in Darfur.

It is widely recognized that the current force of 7,000 AU peacekeepers is inadequate to stop the fighting in a region the size of France or Texas. About 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes in Darfur and are living in poorly protected camps in the province and eastern Chad.

But al-Bashir has rejected the deployment of U.N. troops, saying they would violate Sudan’s sovereignty. Many believe he fears the U.N. force would arrest Sudanese officials suspected of war crimes in Darfur.

Until now, Sudan has said it will accept only a small number of U.N. security forces and equipment to support the AU mission.

(AP)