US President George Bush doesn’t speak about Darfur very often, but his swing through five African nations prompted him to challenge China’s continued trade with Sudan.
President Bush is pledging $100 million to train and equip African peacekeepers who will serve in Darfur. He’s highlighting U.S. sanctions on Sudan’s leaders and companies. And he said “human suffering ought to preempt commercial interests.”
That’s a thinly-veiled reference to China. China buys most of Sudan’s oil exports. It faces growing pressure to help broker a peace deal between rebel groups and the Sudanese government.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports, the US has no plans to directly intervene in the genocide.
The White House has said that the bloodshed in Darfur is genocide, but the president yesterday defended his refusal to intervene directly in the fighting.
“I made a decision and I stand by it,” he said, flanked by Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, who has repeatedly criticised the West for failing to stop the deaths of 800,000 of his countrymen during 100 days of killing in 1994.
