China helping Darfur
China Credited With Progress on Darfur
By WILLIAM C. MANN
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. diplomat on Wednesday reported significant progress in Darfur peace talks and credited China with playing an important role.
Andrew Natsios, President Bush's envoy to help solve the 4 1/2-year-old conflict in Sudan, said neighboring Libya also has begun to cooperate.
The primary obstacles to peace talks now, he said, are some of the dozens of rebel groups, rather than President Omar al-Bashir's Sudanese government.
Due to Chinese influence, Natsios said, Sudan's government has accepted a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in July to authorize a 26,000-member military and civilian peacekeeping operation.
China has come under widespread criticism by aid groups for ignoring atrocities by the Sudanese government while spending billions on Sudanese oil.
Natsios told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, that such behavior has changed.
"I think the Chinese are like a locomotive that is speeding up," he said. "They are even doing things we didn't ask them to do."
On Tuesday, China reported sending a third batch of soldiers to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan to oversee a 2005 agreement that ended a long-running civil war. Beijing also plans to send troops to the Darfur operation.
Natsios said putting in place a comprehensive agreement in southern Sudan is far behind schedule. The deal gives autonomy from the Muslim-dominated national government to the largely animist and Christian rebel administration in the south.
Until that agreement is fully in place, Natsios said, "there will be no peace in Darfur."
As for Libya, Natsios said Sudan and Chad, both Libyan neighbors, have been fighting a little-reported border war by proxy, using unofficial forces against each other. Libya negotiated a cease-fire, Natsios said, "and it appears to be working."
Libya also is hosting a peace conference between Darfur rebel groups and the Sudanese government starting Oct. 27.
Natsios said the problem with such negotiations is that the rebel groups feel "that they get everything they want or there will be no agreement. I have told them that is not the way negotiations work."
By WILLIAM C. MANN
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. diplomat on Wednesday reported significant progress in Darfur peace talks and credited China with playing an important role.
Andrew Natsios, President Bush's envoy to help solve the 4 1/2-year-old conflict in Sudan, said neighboring Libya also has begun to cooperate.
The primary obstacles to peace talks now, he said, are some of the dozens of rebel groups, rather than President Omar al-Bashir's Sudanese government.
Due to Chinese influence, Natsios said, Sudan's government has accepted a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in July to authorize a 26,000-member military and civilian peacekeeping operation.
China has come under widespread criticism by aid groups for ignoring atrocities by the Sudanese government while spending billions on Sudanese oil.
Natsios told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, that such behavior has changed.
"I think the Chinese are like a locomotive that is speeding up," he said. "They are even doing things we didn't ask them to do."
On Tuesday, China reported sending a third batch of soldiers to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Sudan to oversee a 2005 agreement that ended a long-running civil war. Beijing also plans to send troops to the Darfur operation.
Natsios said putting in place a comprehensive agreement in southern Sudan is far behind schedule. The deal gives autonomy from the Muslim-dominated national government to the largely animist and Christian rebel administration in the south.
Until that agreement is fully in place, Natsios said, "there will be no peace in Darfur."
As for Libya, Natsios said Sudan and Chad, both Libyan neighbors, have been fighting a little-reported border war by proxy, using unofficial forces against each other. Libya negotiated a cease-fire, Natsios said, "and it appears to be working."
Libya also is hosting a peace conference between Darfur rebel groups and the Sudanese government starting Oct. 27.
Natsios said the problem with such negotiations is that the rebel groups feel "that they get everything they want or there will be no agreement. I have told them that is not the way negotiations work."
posted by Mark Hancock at 10:51 AM
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