Bush Frustrated by Lack of Action in Darfur | Voice of America - English
President Bush says he is frustrated by the lack of international effort to stop the violence in Sudan's troubled Darfur region and says the United States may take further action on its own. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns reports from Germany, where Mr.
A week after tightening economic sanctions against the government in Khartoum, President Bush says he is considering further unilateral action to try and stop the violence in Darfur. Following talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair before the start of the G8 summit, Mr. Bush says he is frustrated that international organizations are not moving quickly enough. "I don't know how long it's going to take for people to hear the call to save lives," he said. "I will be stressing, along with Tony, the need for nations to take action. If the U.N. won't act, we need to take action ourselves and I laid out a series of sanctions that I think hopefully will affect Bashir's behavior. But enough is enough in Darfur." In the last four years, more than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and more than two million others displaced by fighting between rebels and government-backed militia. Khartoum has agreed to allow just 3,000 United Nations troops into Darfur to support 7,000 African Union troops. The United Nations and the Africa Union want 23,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, as part of a force under joint command. Khartoum has previously rejected such a large U.N. presence, saying any peacekeeping force must be under African control. Tightening American economic sanctions against Sudan, last week, President Bush said he also wants an arms embargo against Khartoum and the creation of a no-fly zone to prevent the Sudanese military from conducting offensive military flights over Darfur.