Bush, Sudan envoy look to speed Darfur action

Agence-France-Presse
January 17, 2008
Original Source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gN5K4NO6GTIe2jNh3RcbpVXSpnVw
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush, meeting with his special envoy for Sudan, said Thursday that efforts to deploy a UN force in Darfur had moved too slowly and that he hoped to speed up the process.
The United States can help what has been a process, frankly, that has unfolded a little too slowly for our liking, Bush said as he held talks in his Oval Office with Ambassador Rich Williamson.
Our discussion centered upon our mutual desire to develop a strategy that will help the United Nations become more effective, the president told reporters. And I plan to accelerate our efforts.
At least 200,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than two million have fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Sudan's Arab-dominated regime in 2003.
My administration called this a genocide. Once you label it genocide you obviously have to do something about it, said Bush.
The US president said his envoy would also look to reinforce a the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan, signed three years ago to end 21 years of civil war.
Tensions have run high between Washington and Khartoum. A US diplomat and his driver were murdered on New Year's day in Khartoum, a day after Bush signed a law aimed at piling economic pressure on the government there.
And US officials have increasingly expressed impatience over the deployment of a new UN-mandated peacekeeping mission, which took over from an African Union force on January 1.
The new mission, the UN's largest, will eventually consist of 20,000 troops and 6,000 police and civilian personnel, but only around 9,000 troops and police are currently in place.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto declined to blame any particular country for why it's a particular problem that we can't get up to the number, but we certainly do want to see it get up to the number of the full force in Darfur.
It's a very complicated question that has to do with some in terms of funding, some in terms of the willingness of the government of Sudan to be accommodating in allowing troops into the country, and also in individual countries in being able to make troops available for service on the ground, he said.