Danforth tapped as special envoy to troubled Sudan

Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush named a prominent former senator and ordained minister, John C. Danforth, to broker an end to an African civil war that after nearly two decades is grabbing the attention of Christian groups and western oil companies alike.

"It's important to America, important to the world to bring some sanity to the Sudan," Bush said during a Rose Garden ceremony. "For nearly two decades, the government of Sudan has waged a brutal and shameful war against its own people."

The jihad by the Islamic-led government in the north has killed an estimated 2 million and forced thousands into slavery in southern Sudan, where most follow traditional African beliefs but 5 percent are Christian.

In the United States, prominent Christians, black leaders and civil rights advocates have pressured Bush to help save their religious brethren.

Bush first responded by declaring Sudan "a disaster area for human rights" and naming his foreign aid chief, Andrew Natsios, as humanitarian envoy. On Thursday, Bush named Danforth as America's peace envoy to Sudan, tapping a well-regarded Missouri Republican who is an Episcopal priest and civil rights leader in his own right. Friends and foes alike sometimes call him "St. Jack."

"In appointing me special envoy, President Bush has asked me to determine if there is anything useful the U.S. can do to help end the misery in Sudan, in addition to what we are already doing on the humanitarian side," Danforth said. "Even to ask that question is a powerful statement by the president of the values of our country."

On Capitol Hill, religious conservatives embraced Bush's choice. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said: "He is known around the world as an individual committed to fairness. He understands how to simplify complex political problems. He clearly understands the unique problems faced by Christians and other religious people in the south of Sudan."

Kansas GOP Sen. Sam Brownback, a Foreign Relations Committee member and a leader on issues involving Sudan, said, "I hope this appointment represents the beginning of the end for the ongoing 18-year war and the outrageous human rights abuses perpetrated upon the civilian population."

Chester Crocker, a leading African affairs official during the Reagan administration, rejected an offer to take the job in June.

On hand for the announcement of Danforth's appointment was Secretary of State Colin Powell, who during a four-nation tour of Africa in the spring said he wanted to re-energize the stalled peace process in Sudan.

Powell reportedly is considering whether to support an Egyptian move in the United Nations to lift restrictions on foreign travel by Sudanese officials. The U.N. Security Council will meet later this month to consider lifting sanctions imposed in 1996 to force Sudan to hand over would-be assassins of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

But in the United States, Sudan is one of seven countries listed by the State Department as a sponsor of terrorism and would remain on the list even if the U.N. removes travel restrictions, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday. The United States severely limits imports of goods from Sudan and generally bans financial dealings with Africa's largest country.

Yet the United States has provided about $1.2 billion in humanitarian aid to southern Sudan since 1989 and on Thursday announced two new U.S. Agency for International Development programs there; one to create a teachers' college and one to boost agricultural production.

Powell has advocated an evenhanded policy on Sudan but has met with vocal opposition to the central Islamic government in Congress, where lawmakers voted in June to forbid foreign oil companies with Sudanese interests from selling stock or other securities in the United States.

Sudan has vast oil reserves, mostly along a line that divides the Arab and Muslim north from black Christians and animists in the south. A consortium of Chinese, Canadian, Malaysian and Sudanese companies has spent more than $1 billion since 1997 to bring Sudan's oil online, and today production has reached 220,000 barrels daily.

Humanitarian groups, in turn, say Sudan's government is using oil revenues to build its military and persecute non-Muslims. The government denies the allegations and blames the violence on disputes among local tribes around the fields.

Danforth has been tapped before to tackle thorny issues since his 1995 retirement from the Senate. Most recently, he conducted a 14-month inquiry into the deaths of about 80 Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, in 1993, serving as special counsel appointed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno. His investigation cleared the FBI of wrongdoing.

------On the Net:

State Department's Sudan Web page: http://www.state.gov/p/af/ci/su/