WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Thursday that international efforts to address violence in Sudan's Darfur region were moving too slowly and that the United State would push to accelerate the process.
By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Thursday that international efforts to address violence in Sudan's Darfur region were moving too slowly and that the United State would push to accelerate the process.
The United States has been seeking to get a 26,000-strong African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force into Darfur but Bush's special envoy resigned last month amid frustrations about the slow pace.
"The United Nations considers the Darfur issue a central issue and it's on its agenda, we agree," Bush told reporters after meeting with his new special envoy, Ambassador Rich Williamson, at the White House.
!ADVERTISEMENT!"The United States can help what has been a process, frankly, that has unfolded a little too slow for our liking, and we can help," he said. "I plan to accelerate our efforts."
Williamson, a Chicago lawyer, previously was deputy to former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Negroponte, who is now Deputy Secretary of State. He also served in the Reagan administration.
International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in almost five years of revolt in Darfur. The Sudanese government denies charges that the violence is genocide, a term Bush has used to describe the situation.
A joint African Union-U.N. force has taken over peacekeeping duties in Darfur but has only around a third of the planned 26,000 troops and police on the ground.
"We want to see countries meet their commitment to deliver troops and to deliver the funding that's necessary to get those troops on the ground, and we want to see greater cooperation on the part of the government of Sudan to let those forces in," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said she had no immediate comment on Bush's remarks. But U.N. officials noted that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had expressed concern about the obstacles delaying deployment of the joint force in Darfur.
"We are very much concerned about this ongoing deteriorating situation in Darfur," Ban said at a January 7 news conference during which he called for full cooperation from the Sudanese government and urged U.N. member states to live up to their commitments.
(Additional reporting by Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations; Editing by Xavier Briand)
