Bush surprise at Sudan briefing
George Bush met the award winners from Africa for about an hour
US President George Bush expressed amazement when he heard that the south Sudan peace deal was not working 18 months after it was signed.
"That is not the information I'm getting," he told the BBC's Khartoum reporter Alfred Taban, who was in Washington to receive an award.
He met the president in the Oval Office with three other recipients of the National Endowment for Democracy award.
Last year, Sudan emerged from a 21-year war between the north and south.
After two years of bargaining the Khartoum government and southern rebels signed a comprehensive peace deal in January 2005, that should provide a high degree of autonomy for the south.
No water
Our correspondent says he spent almost 20 minutes talking to Mr Bush, who was very keen to hear about the situation in Sudan.
Whatever information you're getting, that peace agreement is not being implemented by the government in Khartoum
BBC's Alfred Taban
"He asked me if the peace agreement was working and I said, 'Mr President, it is not working,' and he was very surprised," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5128166.stm
ush blocks campaign to put pressure on Sudan over Darfur
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 19 September 2006
The Bush administration and big business interests have been accused of undermining efforts to exert financial pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the killing in Darfur.
A bill that passed the US Congress endorsing state legislation to force publicly owned entities to sell off holdings in companies that do substantial business with Sudan, or sell Khartoum weapons, has now been blocked in the Senate, with campaigners blaming the White House. They say the long-delayed draft put forward last week by the Foreign Relations Committee had removed a clause known as Section 11 that would have thrown its weight behind a celebrity-backed campaign requiring publicly owned entities to dump stock.
"If the federal government is for divestment outright, they should publicly state so," said Jason Miller, a US-based Darfur campaigner. " If they are against divestment, they should publicly state so. If there's some middle ground where they agree with certain types of divestment but not others, they should have been open to compromise on Section 11 language. Instead, they gave us complete ambiguity."
The half dozen states that have already passed such measures, and the 15 more said to be studying them, now face the prospect of legal action from a big business pressure group with a track record of lobbying against economic sanctions.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1619247.ece
George Bush met the award winners from Africa for about an hour
US President George Bush expressed amazement when he heard that the south Sudan peace deal was not working 18 months after it was signed.
"That is not the information I'm getting," he told the BBC's Khartoum reporter Alfred Taban, who was in Washington to receive an award.
He met the president in the Oval Office with three other recipients of the National Endowment for Democracy award.
Last year, Sudan emerged from a 21-year war between the north and south.
After two years of bargaining the Khartoum government and southern rebels signed a comprehensive peace deal in January 2005, that should provide a high degree of autonomy for the south.
No water
Our correspondent says he spent almost 20 minutes talking to Mr Bush, who was very keen to hear about the situation in Sudan.
Whatever information you're getting, that peace agreement is not being implemented by the government in Khartoum
BBC's Alfred Taban
"He asked me if the peace agreement was working and I said, 'Mr President, it is not working,' and he was very surprised," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5128166.stm
ush blocks campaign to put pressure on Sudan over Darfur
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 19 September 2006
The Bush administration and big business interests have been accused of undermining efforts to exert financial pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the killing in Darfur.
A bill that passed the US Congress endorsing state legislation to force publicly owned entities to sell off holdings in companies that do substantial business with Sudan, or sell Khartoum weapons, has now been blocked in the Senate, with campaigners blaming the White House. They say the long-delayed draft put forward last week by the Foreign Relations Committee had removed a clause known as Section 11 that would have thrown its weight behind a celebrity-backed campaign requiring publicly owned entities to dump stock.
"If the federal government is for divestment outright, they should publicly state so," said Jason Miller, a US-based Darfur campaigner. " If they are against divestment, they should publicly state so. If there's some middle ground where they agree with certain types of divestment but not others, they should have been open to compromise on Section 11 language. Instead, they gave us complete ambiguity."
The half dozen states that have already passed such measures, and the 15 more said to be studying them, now face the prospect of legal action from a big business pressure group with a track record of lobbying against economic sanctions.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1619247.ece
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