17 November 2004

(U.S. Ambassador Danforth pledges council support if peace agreement reached)

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- Calling the upcoming Security Council session on Sudan, which will be held in Africa, "very, very important," U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said November 16 that he hopes the council will witness a peace agreement between Khartoum and rebels in the south.

As he was about to leave for meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, November 18 and 19, Danforth, who is president of the Security Council for the month of November, said, "The Security Council is speaking in one voice. We are expecting, in short order, a peace agreement" for the North-South conflict.

"If there is peace in Sudan, the international community is going to be there for Sudan" to monitor peace agreements and provide a real presence for development assistance in the country, the U.S. ambassador said. "In other words, it's up to the parties to decide which way they want to go.

"We're not going to see a peace agreement and then go on to the next subject. This is going to be an ongoing responsibility and commitment by the international community" to Sudan, Danforth said.

"On the other hand, if the choice of the parties is not peace but continued fighting, if the disaster of Darfur continues, if civilians continue to be victimized, then, of course, the international community is going to be interested, but in a very different kind of way," he said.

The two-day session will be the 11th time that the main U.N. body responsible for peace and security has met away from U.N. headquarters in New York. It is being held in Nairobi where peace talks have been taking place to resolve the long-running civil war in southern Sudan. The conflict and humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan will also be on the council's agenda.

The council will be discussing the issues with representatives of the African Union, which has provided a mission to monitor the ceasefire in Darfur, and of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which supervises the southern Sudan peace talks as well as with officials of the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).

At a press conference in New York November 16, Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), outlined how his organization is already helping in both southern Sudan and in the Darfur region.

"In the south we have actually begun some reconstruction work already," Natsios said. "We did some in the 1990s on a small scale, and we've ratcheted that up dramatically in 2003 and continued in 2004." What other measures will be taken or other aid given in the event of a peace agreement "is something I will leave to the State Department to announce," the administrator said.

"If there is an agreement on Darfur and people voluntarily return to their homes we will certainly play a role in helping to resettle people back to their home villages," he added. "We made that offer before and we make it again. People who suffer that much need help to restore their lives."

Natsios also said that the people of Darfur are facing increasing challenges in 2004 because of poor rainfall, camp security issues, and the looting of millions of farm animals by the Jingaweit militias.

One of the most important issues that need to be dealt with, Natsios said, is the looting of as many as 3 million farm animals by the Jingaweit militia, which has created a massive and illegal -- transfer of wealth from one clan to another, impoverishing the herder-farmers.

"The consequence is that these people are completely dependent and destitute, unable to support themselves unless there is a resettlement and rehabilitation in the near future," he said. "We need restitution for the Darfurian tribes that have had their animal herds looted."

The poor rainfall during the growing season has severely cut the crops of those who have remained on their farms, Natsios said. "The crops are 10 to 15 percent of what they normally are .... That means that farmers who do harvest some crops will run out of food by March of next year. These are people who are not displaced by the fighting or attacked by the Jingaweit."

Natsios also said that the government of Sudan has now destroyed a third camp for displaced persons in violation of international standards.

"They have used violence against civilians, killed a mother and two boys in the last camp attack, used tear gas and nets to get people out of the camp and then they bulldozed their homes," he said. "This is not the way resettlement efforts are run."

USAID has been in Sudan for many years, engaged in both development activities and more recently in humanitarian work in Darfur, he noted. USAID started activities in Darfur in April 2003 and has spent $302 million, which includes the provision of about 70 percent of the food that has been distributed in Darfur since the crisis started.

A 15-person Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) is in Darfur and Khartoum coordinating U.S. relief efforts. USAID operations have grown from a few hundred local relief workers to a current level of 789 international and Sudanese workers, which, Natsios said, is a major step "toward building up the infrastructure needed to run the aid effort there."