05/01/2006

One day after thousands of people attended rallies across the country to demand action to save Darfur, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick rushed to Abuja, Nigeria, to help parties searching for peace reach an agreement before the new deadline of midnight, May 2. He will work with the African Union, which is conducting the negotiations between the government of Sudan and three rebel groups, to address the most urgent and challenging issues blocking a peace agreement—security arrangements and power sharing.

Mr. Zoellick told representatives of non-government organizations working to end what President Bush has called genocide in Darfur that if the security issues can be resolved, a political solution should be possible. The security issues involved how to disarm and demobilize both the Janjaweed -- the government-sponsored militia responsible for repeated and vicious attacks against civilians -- and the rebel groups. One of the challenges is how to incorporate rebel fighters into a new security force.

If there is a peace agreement, peacekeepers will be necessary in the Darfur region of Western Sudan for some time, Mr. Zoellick said. Right now, about 7,000 African Union peacekeepers are patrolling an area as large as Texas; the United Nations wants to incorporate them into a larger UN force. However, before that happens, the AU force must be strengthened. Mr. Zoellick said that it is absolutely critical than Congress pass a supplemental appropriations bill that contains $173 million for the AU force. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives, but the Senate is still debating the bill this week.

Last week the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) announced that it was cutting rations to Darfur by half because it is running out of money. The U.S. has been providing 85 percent of the WFP's food for Darfur, but Mr. Zoellick said that he is asking the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide more food, although he warned that AID’s stocks will have to be replenished later. To meet the shortfall and prevent starvation in Darfur, other donors will have to increase their contributions to the WFP.