Published: August 25, 2006

State's Frazer Carries Message of Urgency on Darfur to Sudan

Share This Story

By Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File

U.S. official decries "foot-dragging" by Khartoum government, United Nations

Speaking on the eve of a trip to Sudan at the behest of President Bush, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer voiced frustration at the continued violence in Darfur, decrying "foot-dragging" by both the Sudanese government and the United Nations.

Frazer told journalists at an August 24 Washington Foreign Press Center news conference that she was leaving the next day for Sudan, where she planned to meet with President Omar al-Bashir and top Sudanese government officials about the continued violence in Sudan's Darfur region, where the United Nations estimates as many as 200,000 civilians have been killed since violence first flared up in 2003.

"My trip is not intended to go to Darfur," she told journalists. "My primary mission is to consult further with the government of Sudan" in Khartoum about fulfilling its responsibility to protect the citizens of Darfur, who have been assailed over the years by renegade militias called Jingaweit, actively supported in the past by the Khartoum government.

"We cannot let violence and atrocities continue. We cannot allow future Rwandas to happen," Frazer said, adding, "We must act now" to get a U.N. force in place in Darfur and have President al-Bashir and his government accept it.

"I will be carrying a message from President Bush," Frazer added, emphasizing those points and addressing sanctions the United States imposed against Sudan before 2003, caused in part by human rights violations by the government in Khartoum, later exacerbated by the genocide in Darfur.

Frazer said the Khartoum government has taken "very positive actions as far as the North-South peace agreement is concerned." But "as long as you have the crisis continuing in Darfur - the humanitarian and human rights violations - we cannot remove sanctions," she said.

The assistant secretary also voiced frustration with the United Nations' slow response in deploying a peacekeeping force of up to 18,000 troops to relieve the beleaguered African Union (AU) force now in Darfur, saying: "We cannot delay. We cannot allow ... bureaucratic ... foot-dragging at the U.N."

While acknowledging that there is general agreement at the United Nations that such a force, including 3,500 police, is needed urgently, Frazer said the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations' January 2007 target date for deployment is "intolerable."

With the AU mandate ending September 30, an October target for a U.N. "Blue Hat" contingent is more realistic and would save more lives, among both civilians and peacekeepers, she said. In the previous week, two Rwandans in the AU force were killed, Frazer pointed out.

She said the U.S. government is pushing urgently for a U.N. Security Council resolution that would mandate the force as soon as possible and holds out hope for its passage since that body has three African members now and is chaired by the Ghanaian representative.

Asked if the United Nations would deploy the peacekeeping force in Darfur over the objections of President al-Bashir, Frazer said: "This force is not going to fight its way in. We're not trying to deploy Western domination here [in Sudan]." The point, she said, is to protect Darfurians and relieve the AU peacekeepers, who are "sitting ducks" now.

For additional information, see Darfur Humanitarian Emergency and a State Department fact sheet on U.S. assistance to the people of Sudan.

Source: U.S. Department of State

alan@newsblaze.com