U.S. delegation says experts denied visa to Sudan
WASHINGTON, March 7 (Reuters) – Sudan has denied visas to a high-ranking American academic and three foreign policy experts planning to conduct a fact-finding mission on United Nations efforts to deal with atrocities in Darfur, delegation organizers said on Monday.
Anne-Marie Slaughter, dean of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and her delegation were scheduled to leave for the troubled African region on Friday but their visas were not granted by the Sudanese government.
They are part of a task force mandated by the U.S. Congress to report by June 6 on the extent to which the United Nations is fulfilling the purposes of its charter and to propose ways the United States can help improve performance in key areas, including human rights.
Former U.S. Rep Newt Gingrich and former Sen. George Mitchell, co-chairs of the task force, said they were “deeply distressed” by Sudan’s inaction.
“The purpose of the planned task force travel to Sudan was to find facts on the ground concerning the performance of the United Nations and its agencies in the field of human rights,” they said in a statement.
“Despite having more than ample time, the government of Sudan failed to act on visa applications by task force members and experts, making the travel … impossible,” they said.
A spokesman for the Sudanese Embassy in Washington was not available for immediate comment.
The task force was created by Congress in December under the direction of the congressionally funded United States Institute for Peace with the participation of six public policy organizations: the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Council on Foreign Relation, the Heritage Foundation and the Hoover Institution.
Lawmakers said at the time they were “deeply troubled by the inaction of the United Nations on many fronts, especially in regard to the genocide in Darfur.
In Darfur, killings, rape and the pillaging of African villages are widespread in fighting between rebels wanting more power and the Arab-dominated Sudanese government. Khartoum denies it has armed brutal militia, known as Janjaweed. A U.N. inquiry has said there is little distinction between the Janjaweed and government-backed official paramilitary forces.