Cross-posted at the Biden for President Blog
The New York Times today revealed the findings of a confidential United Nations report that sheds light on Khartoum’s most recent support for the violence that continues to ravage Western Sudan.
Last week, Senator Joe Biden held a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to push the Bush Administration to give Sudan the attention it deserves and put an end to the genocide.
From the New York Times:
A confidential United Nations report says the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.
The report says that, contrary to the Sudanese government’s earlier denials to United Nations investigators, the freshly painted planes are being operated out of all three of Darfur’s principal airports and used for aerial surveillance and bombardments of villages, in addition to the transportation of cargo.
Just yesterday, the Sudanese government dropped objections to the deployment of 3,000 armed peacekeepers in a joint operation by the U.N. and the African Union. Today’s developments underscore sentiments expressed by Senator Joe Biden last week, when he convened a hearing on the Darfur crisis in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
We must set a hard deadline now on Khartoum to accept a hybrid A.U.-U.N. force. And we must start planning to impose that force if Khartoum refuses, and to take other concrete steps that can start saving lives now. I’ve long advocated a NATO-led no-fly zone to stop the air support Khartoum provides to the Janjaweed. Recently, Khartoum has stepped up its slaughter from the skies. It is within our power to clip their wings.
Check out more video of the hearing on our YouTube Channel:
Senator Biden has been a strong advocate for those suffering in Sudan. The Genocide Intervention Network graded Senator Biden with an A+ for his efforts to address this humanitarian crisis. During the hearing, Biden laid out a number of objectives that the United States should pursue to resolve the conflict:
- Press the various Sudanese rebel groups to come to a consensus on their terms for resolution to the crisis.
- Craft a comprehensive peace agreement instead of just relying on peacekeepers.
- Support multilateral sanctions against the Sudanese government.
- Include Sudan’s neighbors in any future peace agreements to address violence that has spilled over into Chad and the Central African Republic.
- Establish hard deadlines for Sudan to accept peacekeeping forces and impose a no-fly zone to uphold these deadlines if Sudan continues to defy the international community.
We can no longer sit back and allow this genocide to continue. President Bush announced today that the United States will increase its pressure on the Sudanese government in the midst of the U.N. report, but the Bush Administration has called the Darfur situation a genocide since 2004. In a statement released this afternooon, Senator Biden responded to Bush’s speech:
Instead of more threats, we need to act, now.