09/15/2005

Refugees International and 33 organizations are calling on President Bush to advance a more comprehensive plan for peace in Sudan in order to end the crisis in Darfur, halt the eruption of violence in the east and address the related 19-year conflict in northern Uganda. 

In a letter to the president, the organizations called for improvements in three areas: to give more power, resources and staff to the US Special Representative for Sudan to assist him as he works towards peace in the region; ensure greater protection of civilians; and provide greater financial, logistical, and political support for all regional peace processes. The letter is below.

• Give the new Special Representative for Sudan a more comprehensive mandate, and provide increased staff and resources appropriate to that expanded mandate. We welcome the recent appointment of Roger Winter as Special Representative for Sudan on behalf of Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick. While many of us had recommended that you appoint a Presidential Envoy, we are confident in Mr. Winter’s abilities and expertise and look forward to working with him. We are concerned, however, that his current mandate is not broad enough. Indeed, we are convinced that the problems throughout Sudan and in northern Uganda are interrelated and cannot be effectively addressed in sequence. Consequently, we strongly urge you to empower Special Representative Winter with an expanded mandate that gives priority to saving lives in Darfur, calls for aggressive engagement with the Government of Sudan on its policies towards the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), encourages action on emerging flashpoints throughout the country, and ensures progress towards the full implementation of the CPA. Increased staff and resources will clearly be needed to reinforce such a mandate and we recommend they be provided.
  

• Ensure greater protection of civilians.  Despite efforts to expand the African Union (AU) mission in Darfur, protection for civilians remains inadequate. Increasing numbers of AU personnel and agreements with NATO and the EU to provide increased logistical support are welcome, but these commitments must translate more rapidly into greater protection for civilians on the ground. The U.S. should work urgently with the international community to ensure the swift fulfillment of these pledges and provide the personnel and resources necessary to effectively protect the people of Darfur. Similarly, we urge your Administration to focus anew on reducing threats to civilians posed by the LRA’s operations in southern Sudan and northern Uganda as well as the emerging violence in the east.
  

• Provide greater financial, logistical, and political support for all regional peace processes. Your administration’s strong focus on peace in Southern Sudan was integral to the successful negotiation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.  We believe a similar level of support for the Darfur and northern Uganda peace processes would have significant impact. Regardless of the recent postponement of the Darfur peace negotiations, we respectfully urge the U.S. government to respond positively to Dr. Salim A. Salim’s funding request of $2 million made at a recent meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Zoellick while simultaneously fulfilling all reasonable logistical requests. In addition, the northern Uganda peace negotiations, brokered by Betty Bigombe, could bring about legitimate peace between the LRA and the government of Uganda but languish because of the lack of focused high-level U.S. government and international representation, as well as the lack of financial and logistical support. High-level support and funding are critical to ensuring the success of these talks.