Obama’s choice of Biden as VP is Sudan’s NCP worst nightmare
August 24, 2008 (WASHINGTON) – The Sudanese ruling National Congress Party (NCP) are likely to be very concerned by Barack Obama’s pick of Senator Joe Biden as his running mate.
The NCP considers the Democratic Party generally hostile to them let alone a figure who was strong proponent of military intervention in the war ravaged region of Darfur.
Biden is the chairman of the foreign relations committee at the US senate and presided over many hearings discussing the situation in Darfur.
In April 2007 the aspiring presidential VP said that “it’s time to put force on the table and use it”.
Biden said that senior US military NATO officials in Europe told him that 2,500 U.S. troops could “radically change the situation on the ground [in Darfur]”.
The Delaware senator was also a co-sponsor for a resolution asking for a no-fly zone over Darfur and Sudan Divestment Authorization Act.
“It is within our power to clip their wings. Yes, a no fly zone could make it more difficult for humanitarian groups to operate – so we should do everything possible to design it with their concerns in mind” Biden said last year.
“This is incredible what is happening and I promise you, we will all going to sit here 5-10 years from now and ask ourselves why didn’t we do the things we can do? “ he told the former US special envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios in a hearing last year.
In September 2004 the US, in a unilateral move, officially labeled the conflict in Darfur as genocide.
Khartoum denies genocide and blames the Western media for exaggerating the four-year-old Darfur conflict. European governments are reluctant to use the term.
(ST)