• Sudan: Danforth as special envoy Sudan: Danforth as special envoy By St. Louis PostDispatch Outgoing should keep U.N. Ambassador John C. Danforth and his wife, Sally, are coming back to St. Louis. We welcome them home. But President George
• Sudan: Danforth as special envoy
Sudan: Danforth as special envoy
By St. Louis PostDispatch
Outgoing should keep U.N. Ambassador John C. Danforth and his wife, Sally, are coming back to St. Louis. We welcome them home. But President George W. Bush Mr. Danforth involved in the effort to bring peace to Sudan.
As U.N. ambassador, Mr. Danforth deserves credit for having shone much needed light on political hot spots in Africa. He took the U.N. Security Council to Nairobi, Kenya to broker a peace deal in the Sudan.
Before becoming U.N. ambassador, Mr. Danforth had been Mr. Bush’s special envoy to Sudan, where he had worked to end a 21year civil war that pits the Muslimcontrolled government against Christians and animist rebels in the South. The parties are supposed to complete negotiations on a peace agreement by Dec. 31, and Mr. Danforth told PostDispatch editorial writers this week that he was optimistic they will meet the deadline. The accord is significant for many reasons, one being its promise to give disaffected elements a voice in the government.
Meanwhile, peace talks involving the killing in Sudan’s Darfur region have broken off. The governmentbacked Janjaweed death squads have attacked villagers and engaged in what the United States says is genocide. Ordinarily, that charge is followed by specific steps to round up and punish those responsible for the carnage. But that hasn’t happened because of a lack of political will to make it happen.
The explanation for that lack of will is heavy on realpolitik. The Security Council won’t authorize military action or sanctions, partly because Sudan is China’s fourthlargest supplier of oil; China provides weapons in return. The United States is not about to send troops into a civil war in a largely Islamic country where some of the rebels are ultraIslamists. The African Union, which has agreed to send about 3,000 peacekeepers to the Darfur area, has been slow getting them in place.
With all of the sticks taken out of his hand, Mr. Danforth was left with carrots in Nairobi. He hopes that an overall peace settlement between the North and the South can be a basis for winding down the violence in Darfur in the long run. But with the situation worsening in Darfur, the Security Council should consider stronger action, as U.N. SecretaryGeneral Kofi Annan recommended this week.
Mr. Danforth knows that Sudan is going to be a major problem for years to come. Mr. Bush needs someone capable of keeping Sudan’s problems on the U.N. agenda and prodding Sudan’s leaders to make peace. The president should ask Mr. Danforth to reassume the role of his personal envoy for this important foreign policy mission.
