In the wake of the departure of the administration’s point man on Sudan, two leading human rights advocates in the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), today called for President George W. Bush to appoint a special envoy to Sudan so the U.S. can help push the peace process forward in Darfur and bring lasting peace and stability to Sudan. 

    “There is the sense of the tyranny of the urgent, where we look around, whether it be the problems in the Middle East or the problems with North Korea, there's always something clamoring for attention -- but in Darfur, every day, men and women and children die a needless death because of that inattention. So it's time to step up to the plate and name a special envoy,” said Smith.

    Smith, Chairman of the House International Relations Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations Subcommittee made his remarks at this morning’s press conference on Capitol Hill calling for a special envoy to Sudan. He was joined at the event by Wolf, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Departments of State, Commerce and Justice and Co-Chairman of the House Human Rights Caucus.

    “We must also remember that genocide is still taking place in Darfur in Sudan. Men are still being killed. Women are still being raped. Children are growing up in refugee camps. And the world has been paralyzed to stop it. Today, we call on the administration for the immediate appointment -- and I mean immediate appointment -- of a special envoy for Sudan to focus like a laser beam on this issue,” Wolf said during the press conference. 

    With the resignation of Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, there is no longer a high-raking State Department official dedicated to working on the complex issues involved in Sudan. Smith, Wolf and many of their colleagues believe an imminent breakdown of the Darfur peace process, as well as concerns about the long-term success of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the north-south civil war in Sudan, requires a special envoy, a position Congress has already authorized $250,000 to fund. 

    “Money has already been appropriated for this official position. Today actually culminates what’s been a months-long drive in urging the administration to appoint a special envoy. Congress needs to push the administration until that becomes a reality,’” Smith said.

    Smith and Wolf were joined in their appeal to the administration by Dave Rubenstein, Coalitions Coordinator for the Save Darfur Coalition, a grassroots organization that has been actively calling for the special envoy vacancy to be filled.

    “Just last week, we had a call-in day where Americans from all over the country called the White House to demand that the president appoint a special envoy for Sudan. But more important than that, the president has to be told by all of us that this is important to the American people, that we want to stand up as leaders, that we want to say that this genocide must end immediately,” Rubenstein said. 

    The genocide in Darfur, which began in 2003, has resulted in the deaths of as many as 200,000 people and the displacement of more than two million from their homes. Entire villages have been looted and destroyed, and countless men, women, and children have been murdered, abducted, raped or otherwise abused. The United States has provided more than $617 million in assistance to help ease the suffering of those most affected by the conflict, and more than $150 million to support the African Union mission in Darfur.

    In May, the Government of Sudan and the strongest faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, one of the Darfur rebel groups, signed a peace accord. However, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir’s resistance to a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur and the rejection of the accord by smaller Darfur rebel groups threatens to derail the peace process which is why filling the special envoy vacancy is of utmost urgency.

    “There are good people within the State Department working this issue daily, but they don't have the cache, frankly, to signal to the world that is a priority in the US. A special envoy with the full support of the president can help make this peace agreement come to fruition and do so very quickly,” Smith said.