US intensifies focus on Sudan
2005-10-20 12:55
Washington - Members of the US Congress inaugurated the first "Sudan caucus" to try to focus attention on that embattled country, which despite a truce still struggles for true peace after 30 years of civil war.
"This is not about Sudan, which is a small part of the world and not important. This is about humanity," said Republican Michael Capuano of Massachusetts, one of four chairmen of the bipartisan caucus.
What is happening, Capuano and others said on Wednesday, is the government of President Omar el-Bashir is pulling back on agreements he made in January since the rebel leader, John Garang, died in a July plane crash three months after he was sworn in as Sudan's first vice-president.
Garang was the first Christian vice-president for the country run by Arab-descended Muslims.
The members of the House of Representatives also are denouncing violence in the western Sudan region of Darfur, which began in 2003, even while the North-South negotiations were in progress.
An 'embarrassing' situation
Capuano said, "I find embarrassing as a human being" that the Sudanese government is not being held accountable for Darfur or for lack of full implementation of the peace agreement with the south.
The United States described the Darfur situation as a genocide last year and blamed it on the government's failure to stop attacks on Darfur civilians by alleged government-backed marauders. Estimates of the fatalities in Darfur run to 180 000, many dead from hunger and disease.
US military aircraft have been used to fly in members of an African Union (AU)peacekeeping force, which has been largely ineffective because it is too small and too poorly equipped.
Darfur a no-go zone for US
Ken Isaacs, head of the office of foreign assistance of the US agency for international development, said he just returned from Sudan, where he found a "deteriorating security situation".
"The United Nations has declared a no-go zone in Darfur for its workers," he said, and he expects no significant return of its people in 2006 under current conditions, he said.
He urged the caucus to work toward keeping US aid flowing both to Darfur, where violence continues, and to southern Sudan, where former rebels are struggling to implement the peace agreement despite government efforts to renegotiate.
A Sudanese scholar, Francis Deng - who was Sudan's former ambassador to Canada, the Scandinavian countries and the United States - said a recent trip back to his home country taught him that the Sudanese realise that the two-decades-long civil war could not have been ended without the prodding of the United States.
Isaac said sat in on the opening of what, under the peace agreement, is to be Sudan's parliament.
He said James Wani, speaker of the assembly, spoke of the US role in the Sudan peace deal by quoting a Sudanese saying: "Even a leopard without teeth will have a goat for a friend."
- AP