"Long, tough road" to better Sudan ties: U.S. envoy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy to Sudan said on Wednesday that concrete progress toward ending the "slow-moving genocide" in Sudan's Darfur region must take place before the United States will improve relations with Khartoum.
Defending the U.S. decision to hold talks recently with Sudan's government about the possibility of better ties, Richard Williamson said the United States would take nothing on faith from Khartoum, a government that he said "lies."
Instead the United States has presented Sudan with a list of requirements for better relations, including ensuring the rapid deployment of peacekeepers in Darfur and increasing humanitarian relief there.
Sudan would also would have to keep past commitments to implement a 2005 peace deal known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Williamson said.
"We said repeatedly that we were laying out a long, tough road," Williamson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "There had to be verifiable progress on the ground for any better relations."
Sudan is seeking to normalize relations with Washington after more than a decade under U.S. sanctions. The United States imposed economic sanctions on Sudan in 1997 and labeled it a "state sponsor of terrorism."
Although Washington has a large embassy building in Khartoum, it does not have a full ambassadorial post.
'A SUSTAINABLE PEACE'
Removing sanctions was tied first to ending a long-running war in the south of Africa's largest country. But after the 2005 north-south peace deal, the separate conflict in Darfur brought a new U.S. focus on human rights and kept ties icy.
Williamson, who took up his post early this year, said that in February, Sudan's Foreign Minster Deng Alor delivered a proposal for improving relations to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
U.S. officials decided to "determine whether down this road there exists a path to a sustainable peace in Darfur," he said. Williamson then met Sudan government officials to discuss Khartoum's request in February, and again last week.
"There are many bad actors with whom I have engaged, and I do not forget that for a minute. But ... their engagement may prove critical for progress to be achieved," he said.
He had told Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir that "we think the government of Sudan lies. There is going to be nothing taken on faith. Nothing on promises," Williamson said.
Williamson called the five-year conflict in Darfur a "slow-moving genocide."
"I wish I could tell you that in the foreseeable future there is a possibility for peace," he said.
A top U.N. officials said on Tuesday that as many as 300,000 people may have died in the conflict, which began when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing the central government of neglect. Khartoum mobilized mainly Arab militia to quell the revolt.
Just 9,000 U.N.-African Union peacekeepers, known as UNAMID, have been deployed in the region out of a force that is supposed to number 26,000.
Jane Holl Lute, a senior official in the U.N.'s peacekeeping department, testified that she expected 80 percent of the force to be on the ground by the end of the year.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)
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