Washington, DC — A seven-person U.S. "technical team" will head to Sudan December 7 to follow-up on peace proposals made by President Bush's special peace envoy, former Senator John Danforth. The team, which will include officials from the State Department, Defense Department and the Agency for International Development, will stay for about a week, Danforth told reporters Tuesday.
Danforth has recently returned from his first official visit to Sudan where he met with both government and rebel leaders and presented proposals designed to be the first steps toward peace. "My meetings were preliminary and the group that's going out next week is going to be dealing with much more details," said Danforth.
If hostilities ended in the Nuba Mountains, said Danforth, "Would that protect the oil pipeline?" That is one issue the team will begin addressing, he said. "If there was a cessation of fighting in point A, would that simply mean that combatants at point A would move to point B and start fighting there?" he added.
Danforth made four proposals while in Sudan: a call for a truce in the Nuba mountains, "zones and times of tranquility" that permit aid workers to operate, an end to aerial bombardment of civilian targets by Sudan's air force, and an end to the abduction and enslavement of civilians. "Nobody threw us out the door," said Danforth who seemed pessimistic about Sudan peace prospects last week.
"I told people that I met with in Sudan that I'm from Missouri and the motto of our state is 'Show Me,'" said Danforth Tuesday. "There have been a lot of agreements over a long period of time in Sudan and nothing has really come of them."
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Sudan's civil war - Africa's longest - has cost more than 2 million lives. Deep distrust has been a major obstacle to achieving a peace agreement, Danforth said. "The thing that is absolutely clear is that nobody believes anybody. It is two ships passing in the night as far as perceptions of the religious and cultural problems and the country are concerned."
Earlier Tuesday, Danforth met with President Bush. Calling Sudan "a very difficult matter," Presidential Spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "The President is hopeful that the Senator will be able to achieve some type of improvement there. Very difficult."
Danforth will return to Africa in early January and hopes then to receive a formal response to his proposals from Sudan's president Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) leader John Garang.
