Sudan

Call on President to Send Clear Message to Sudan That They Must Ensure Continued Humanitarian Access

May 8, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC - House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) and Senator Russell D. Feingold (D-WI) sent a letter to President Bush yesterday, urging him to deliver a strong message to the Sudanese government that they are expected to follow through on all agreements regarding continued humanitarian access to the more than two million Darfurians who depend on international relief groups for survival.    » read more »

08 May 2007 -- Rights group Amnesty International has accused China and Russia of breaching a United Nations arms embargo by letting weapons into Sudan that were then used in the Darfur region.

An Amnesty report published Tuesday expresses dismay that two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council were allowing weapons to flow into Sudan.

Russia and China have dismissed the allegation.

Amnesty International urged the U.N. to strengthen the existing arms embargo on Darfur.    » read more »

08 May 2007 -- A US Congresswoman says strengthening African Union (AU) forces and divesting US companies doing business with Sudan should be a priority. Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee represents Texas and is serving her seventh two-year term in the House of Representatives. She serves on several key House committees and subcommittees. They include the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.    » read more »

May 7, 2007 -- Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today joined a bipartisan group of Senators and members of the House of Representatives in calling on President Bush to enforce the promise by the Sudanese government to facilitate humanitarian operations in Darfur. In a letter to President Bush, the members of Congress outlined their concerns about humanitarian workers' access to over two million displaced Darfurians and the need to enforce the Joint Communiqué agreement between the government of Sudan and the United Nations.    » read more »

03 May 2007 -- The leaders of Chad and Sudan have signed an agreement aimed at reducing tension between their countries.

Chad's President Idriss Deby and President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan signed the reconciliation agreement Thursday in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital, as King Abdullah looked on.

Sudan and Chad agreed not to give any support or refuge to rebels on the other country's territory. They also agreed to work with the African Union and United Nations to end conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and in eastern Chad.    » read more »

May 1, 2007 -- Washington, DC - Continuing her efforts to push for an end to the genocide in Darfur, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton joined a bipartisan group of senators in calling on China to step up pressure on Sudan to end the crisis in Darfur that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and displaced millions more.    » read more »

April 30, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC - In a letter sent today to Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-DE) led 96 Senators in calling on China to use its influence to help end the violence in Darfur. The letter also urges President Hu not to extend interest-free loans to the Sudanese government, which is currently engaged in a military offensive against Darfur that humanitarian groups estimate has cost 400,000 lives.    » read more »

02 May 2007 -- The International Criminal Court, ICC, at The Hague in the Netherlands has issued arrest warrants for a Sudanese government minister and a militia leader accused of war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region.

The arrest warrants charge Ahmed Haroun, Sudan's secretary of state for humanitarian affairs and a former minister in charge of Darfur, and Ali Kosheib, a leader of the Janjaweed militia, with 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture, and rape.    » read more »

23 April 2007 -- Violence in Sudan's embattled Darfur region has dealt another blow to the world's largest aid operation. Oxfam and other non-governmental organizations announced Monday, they will suspend all but essential humanitarian activity in Um Dukhun, western Darfur, following a series of attacks by unknown armed men on aid workers. Noel King has this report from Khartoum.

The suspension of activity will affect 100,000 vulnerable people in western Darfur - a volatile region that borders Chad and the Central African Republic.    » read more »

April 18, 2007 -- WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today called immediate intervention in Darfur, "a moral obligation" and argued that financial sanctions against the Khartoum government are long overdue.

Senator Biden made his remarks after a speech in which President Bush was expected to announce additional sanctions against the Sudanese government, instead offering another chance to abide by U.N. sanctions.    » read more »

20 April 2007 -- Five countries have offered to supply soldiers and police for a United Nations mission to support a beleaguered African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur. From U.N. headquarters, VOA's Peter Heinlein reports diplomats are hoping to have a full support package in operation by September.    » read more »

19 April 2007 -- Experts and activists appearing before a congressional committee have urged President Bush to take stronger action to pressure the Sudanese government to comply with international demands for a 20,000 - strong United Nations and African peacekeeping force for Darfur. VOA's Dan Robinson reports, the calls follow the president's warning to Khartoum that the U.S. will tighten financial and other sanctions if more progress is not forthcoming.    » read more »

Governor also to sign Senate Bills 45, 49, 111, 112 and 195 into law later today

April 19, 2007 -- Colorado Governor Bill Ritter today signed into law the nation’s toughest targeted divestment bill aimed at ending the suffering in Darfur. HB 1184, supported by a broad bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, cuts the financial ties between the state’s public pension funds and companies that support the Sudanese government responsible for the atrocities in Darfur.    » read more »