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Sudan: Darfur activists frustrated with U.S. inaction
Wed. February 14, 2007 12:44 pm.- By Bonny Apunyu. -
(SomaliNet) Africa and human rights activists who have been pressing U.S. President George W. Bush to take strong measures to halt what he himself has called "genocide" in the Darfur region of Sudan are growing increasingly infuriated with Washington's inaction.
And they are focusing their fury at the moment on Bush's special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, who last week told an audience at Georgetown University here that the Sudanese government's actions in Darfur no longer constitutes "genocide".
"Natsios' declaration that genocide is no longer occurring in Darfur denies the reality on the ground and conflicts with numerous statements from the White House and State Department over the past two years," said Nii Akuetteh, executive director of Africa Action, a Washington-based group.
"This is more than a semantic change," he charged. "Natsios' claim represents a calculated attempt to re-chacracterise the crisis, undermine its urgency, and obviate the need for new U.S. action to address."
State Department officials told IPS Monday that U.S. policy regarding Darfur has not changed, but Natsios' statement has nonetheless fueled activists' frustration with the administration, particularly in the absence of any follow-through on U.S. threats late last year that it would take harsh action, referred to as "Plan B", against Khartoum if it did not permit the deployment of a large international peacekeeping force in Darfur.-(Reuters)
News Category: East Africa
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