After receiving a “grim” report about human misery in Darfur, President Bush warned Sudan on Tuesday that the U.S. is “serious” about ending genocide in the war-ravaged African nation.
“There needs to be a credible and effective international force to go into Darfur to save lives,” Bush said in an Oval Office meeting with his envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios.
Natsios just returned from a 10-day trip to Darfur, a Sudanese province that has been wracked by civil war for three years. The fighting has left 200,000 people dead and more than 2 million uprooted from their homes.
“He came back with a grim report about the human condition of a lot of people who suffer,” Bush said of Natsios. “The United States is going to work with the international community to come up with a single plan on how to address this issue and save lives.
“And Andrew is going to work with other partners in peace, and they’ll take that plan to the current government of Sudan,” he added.
The U.S. favors deployment of 20,000 United Nations peacekeepers to replace an ineffective force of 7,000 African Union troops. But Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has derided the U.N. planas a pretext for an American invasion of Sudan.
Last week, Sudan expelled U.N. envoy Jan Pronk after he disclosed that rebels in Darfur have won several battles against the Sudanese army. The rebels are fighting for regional autonomy against Khartoum and its militia allies, known as Janjaweed.
“The government of Sudan must understand that we’re serious,” Bush said. “We’re earnest and serious about their necessity to step up and work with the international community.”
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Tuesday with Sudanese Vice President Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit and warned that Sudan will face international isolation within weeks if it does not move to end the genocide, according to a Blair spokesman.
