Obama appoints hardliner on Sudan to UN ambassador post
By Daniel Van Oudenaren
December 4, 2008 (WASHINGTON) – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama appointed a critic of the government of Sudan to the position of ambassador to the United Nations.
The position will be elevated to a cabinet-level rank, Obama said Monday in Chicago.
Obama said that Rice shares “my belief that the UN is an indispensable—and imperfect—forum.”
Other senior members of the incoming administration were also outspoken critics of Sudan, including Vice President-elect Joe Biden, the Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton and the Commerce Secretary nominee Bill Richardson. But unlike these figures, Rice was not a political rival during the Democratic primary and she advised Obama in recent years while he held a position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
During the campaign she stated, “Six years of killing and maiming and the Sudanese government still is not facing any meaningful pressure from the United States or the international community. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that tougher sanctions combined with real assistance to help the UN-African Union peacekeeping force stand up and protect civilians is long overdue.”
But in earlier statements Rice had made clear that she believed the U.S. should take an even more exceptional role in the Sudan.
Writing in the Washington Post in 2006, she suggested that the U.S. Air Force and Navy undertake a bombing campaign and coastal blockade. The article was co-authored by Anthony Lake, another adviser to Obama, and Congressman Donald Payne.
Testifying to the Senate in April 2007 she stated, “unless the United States leads the world in halting the killing, it will remain a genocide.”
Soon after, she was published as the co-author of a book chapter in which she described the successive peacekeeping missions in Darfur as inadequate and endorsed an interventionist doctrine.
Speaking in February this year at the Brookings Institution, she appeared to endorse U.S. action to support a Chapter VII Resolution in the UN Security Council, and she said that Sudan should be given an ultimatum or face military action.
However, in July she indicated that U.S. did not necessarily need to make a direct military contribution to UNAMID.
Activist groups issued a statement Tuesday applauding Rice’s nomination, as well as those of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State and Retired Marine Corps General James Jones for National Security Advisor. Three key activist leaders stated, “millions of Americans will expect them to exert the energy and resources necessary to ensure that a lasting peace is forged, a credible protection force is established, and perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Accepting the nomination on Monday, Rice pledged to work with other nations to “prevent conflict, to promote peace, combat terrorism, prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons, tackle climate change, end genocide, fight poverty and disease.”
Rice was raised in Washington D.C. and educated in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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wacjak
Obama appoints hardliner on Sudan to UN ambassador post
The appointment of this great woman is an indication of the success and full implementation of the CPA through her tough words in the UN. But at the other end of the scale, it is hitting right in the face the very regime which has confused the Sudanese affaris.
All indeed should thank Obama for his wise decision not forgetting of course his advisors.
Bashir, Taha, Nafi and others in the NCP, watch out, UN will never again tolerate your cheatings.
Long Live Mr Obama.
Dominic Majok Makuei
Obama appoints hardliner on Sudan to UN ambassador post
The appointemnet of Dr.Susana Rice to UN will give CPA a boost and we are cognizant that Rice has alot for Southern Sudan.thanks Obama for this judicious appointment.
congrats Madam Rice upon the appointment and we expect that your usual cooperation with Southern Sudan will continue to exist.
Rice was the first U.S. government’s top official for Africa who came to Southern Sudan ( Rumbek) in 2001 and she spoke against slavery and called Monday for action to end the “heinous” practice.
On a rare visit by a senior U.S. official to rebel-held south Sudan, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Susan Rice said the United States would work tirelessly to stamp out slavery in Africa’s largest country.
The United Nations estimates that up to 15,000 southern Sudanese — mostly women and children — have been abducted in raids on southern villages by Arab militiamen in the last decade and taken to the north to be sold as slaves.
But Sudan’s government and parts of the international community have refused to accept the practice still exists in a nation with a history of slave trading.
Rice told the Citizens in Rumbek that”Part of her visit to South Sudan was to show the world that despite what the government in Khartoum says, despite what some of our partners in the European Union may want to pretend … slavery exists, it has to be acknowledged and it has to be addressed.
DOMINIC MAJOK MAKUEI,
CHAIRMAN,
SOUTHERN SUDAN STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION IN KENYA (SSSAK)