Remarks With UN Secretary General Kofi Annan After Meeting

SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The Secretary of State and I have had a very lengthy and full discussion on the Darfur situation in Sudan. We both agree that the international community must insist that the Sudanese Government honors the commitments it gave when we both visited Sudan. It is important that the internally displaced people in the villages be protected. It is a sacred responsibility of the Government of Sudan to do that, and eventually disarm the jingaweit and the other militia in the region.

We also believe that the international community should make the resources available for the humanitarian work, essential humanitarian work in the region; and on our side, with our NGO partners, we are also increasing the international presence. And, of course, we need not just food, we need nonfood items, we need to work on sanitation, we need logistical support, we need helicopters, we need planes, and we are appealing to governments to give us the necessary tools to do our work.

We will continue to insist that the Government performs. The Council is fully seized of the matter, and, as you know, a resolution has been tabled, which the members are discussing very seriously.

Secretary of State.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary General. I think we had a good and full discussion of this matter and the Secretary General has certainly summarized it accurately.

Since he and I visited Darfur and met with the authorities in Khartoum a few weeks ago, we've seen some modest improvement in access, opening the lines of communication. It's now important for the international community, the NGOs and humanitarian organization of the world, to provide the supplies necessary and to take advantage of this modestly increased access. And we'll be working with the international community to make sure that the food is moving, the medicines are moving, humanitarian workers are coming into the region to build up as rapidly as possible.

We've also seen some improvement in the rate of growth of the AU monitoring mission, which is slowly increasing in size, and then we're working hard to get the protection force in for the AU monitoring group so they can get about their work.

We are still, I think it's safe to say, not satisfied with the security situation. It will do us no good to get the humanitarian situation on the mend but to find it comes a cropper because it is not a secure area, either for the people to return to their homes or for the camps to be kept safe or for the humanitarian workers to be safe. And the burden for this, for providing security, rests fully on the Sudanese Government. They have the responsibility. They have been supporting and sustaining some of these jingaweit elements. This has to end. We have made this clear to the Sudanese leadership. We still know that there are bombings that take place, there are helicopter gunships in Darfur region. I don't know why Darfur region needs helicopter gunships and believe they should be removed in order to help remove the specter of fear, of danger from the skies that affects the people in Darfur. So much more needs to be done on security.

We are also concerned that health workers are not being allowed into Darfur, and I hope the Sudanese Government would quickly review their policy on that. We need not just those who can deliver food and build camps and dig wells, we need health care workers to be allowed in as well.

So, to summarize, we note that there has been improvement in access and availability of supplies. We ask the international community to now take advantage of that access and to send in more workers and more supplies and more transport systems: trucks, helicopters, short-takeoff-and-landing planes. All of these things are needed.

We ask the international community to meet the financial commitments that they have made. There are too many countries that have made a financial commitment but have not yet paid on those commitments, and this is the time.

SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: And others who haven’t made.

SECRETARY POWELL: And others, as the Secretary General correctly points out, others who have not made a commitment, who should not just give speeches about this matter, but make a commitment and then the pay the commitment.

But ultimately, as both the Secretary General and I have said, security is the issue, and that is the responsibility of the Government of Sudan. There are others who are looking at this matter. The African Union is looking to see if there is anything else they might be able to do. We have been in touch with the rebel forces to make sure that they constrain their activities so that we can get peace talks underway. And the Secretary General and I have both been working with the rebel side to encourage them to get back to the table so that discussions can take place, that we'll find a political solution to this terrible crisis.

The people of the region are in desperate need, and the international community has to come together to help them, and we intend to do so. As the Secretary General mentioned, a revised resolution that puts down specific timelines and carries the possibility of sanctions being imposed at the end of the initial time segment that's been given will be discussed actively among Security Council members in the days ahead, and I hope action will be taken in the not-too-distant future. Thank you.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary --

QUESTION: Mr. Powell, right here. Mr. Secretary, Secretary Powell, reports of nearly 30,000 people killed in the conflict --

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

QUESTION: Excuse me. With reports of nearly 30,000 people killed in the conflict, what would it take for the U.S. to label the situation genocide?

SECRETARY POWELL: There is a legal definition of genocide, which includes a specific intent to destroy an entire group. And we are examining it very carefully. I have people in the region who are interviewing the victims, who are interviewing the people who have been displaced, and those reports are now coming back to me. Based on those reports, we will make a judgment in due course as to whether it qualifies.

But I know that there is a great deal of interest in this issue, but it's almost beside the point. The point is that we need to fix the security problem, the humanitarian problem now. Whatever you call it, it's a catastrophe. People are dying at an increasing rate. And we can debate what it should be called or not be called, but that's not the real issue. The real issue is how do we fix the security and how do we put the pressure on the Sudanese Government to do what needs to be done and how do we get the international community more fully mobilized.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, as we know, one of the reasons for the intervention in Iraq was to liberate the Iraqi people. There is a live humanitarian crisis going on in Sudan; there wasn't one in Iraq. Also, in light of the Rwandan genocide, couldn't the U.S. military take out some bandits on horseback? Why is there no talk of intervention by the U.S.?

SECRETARY POWELL: Right now, this is a matter for the Sudanese Government to handle. We are putting pressure on the Sudanese Government for them to act in a responsible manner. This is a very large area. It is not a simple matter to think that there -- you know, it is not a simple military solution that is at hand.

The people who are responsible for the region are the Sudanese leaders and they have said to the international community, the Secretary General and to me that they will be taking action. We have not seen that action yet and we'll continue to apply pressure.

SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: And what is important also is that there is a monitoring mechanism, which is chaired jointly by Mr. Pronk, my representative, and the Foreign Minister, and they will be issuing regular reports for us to make the judgment whether the Sudanese Government is performing or not and for the council to take further action. So it's not as if we took the -- we signed the agreement and walked away. There will be constant monitoring. The government will be required to perform and the international community is very serious about this.

QUESTION: Secretary Powell, on the resolution, do you have any reason to believe that the Sudanese Government will react to it and that more council members will support the revised version than the first version, where there was quite a bit of opposition?

SECRETARY POWELL: There was some opposition to the first version. Initial reports I've gotten from the experts meeting today and the consultations that have taken place today is that there probably is more support for this resolution. For either resolution, though, I think at the end of the day when a vote were held, such a resolution would pass. But I think this one is more likely to gather greater support than the earlier version and this one is, in some ways, tougher than the earlier version.

SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: I can confirm that at the discussion at lunch this morning, that the reactions were quite positive to the resolution and my sense is that it will be successful. And it wasn't just a feeling of good lunch; it was serious discussion and people were --

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, do you think that --

QUESTION: Secretary Powell, do you agree with --

QUESTION: Do you feel that --

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm sorry. Please.

QUESTION: Do you agree with the Secretary General's assessment yesterday that the world is a more dangerous place today than it was three years ago?

SECRETARY POWELL: I believe that a lot has happened over the last three years. We have seen the demise of two despotic regimes: the Taliban and the regime of Saddam Hussein. Fifty-five million people are preparing themselves to vote for their own leaders, 25 million in -- 25 plus million in Afghanistan and 25 plus million in Iraq. And I think we have, therefore, two regimes that are no longer harboring terrorists, that are no longer developing weapons of mass destruction in the case of Iraq, no intention or capability.

It is not that all danger is gone. We still live in a dangerous world, and we have made that clear. And that's why it is important for the international community to come together in coordinating our law enforcement activities, our intelligence activities, and going after terrorists. Terrorists are not going to be defeated easily. It's going to take time, it's going to be patience, take patience; President Bush has said this from the beginning. And we're going to continue this battle until it is won.

And we are pleased that over the last several years, we've not only seen Afghanistan and Iraq are free of these terrible regimes, we have seen Libya realize that it would be in their best interest to get rid of weapons of mass destruction and rejoin the international community. And we're working with other nations that are developing weapons that they shouldn't be developing. Iran, the international community is working with Iran, putting pressure on Iran through the IAEA, through the work of the European Union, and we have six-way talks taking place in North Korea. So there are a lot of things that are going on that is making this a safer world.

SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: Let me add something. Yesterday, I answered this question, the same question. Was it you who has a question?

QUESTION: Please, sir, I believe it was --

SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: It was you. Okay, anyway, I answered that question, and I spoke from my own experience and knowledge and travel. I was not reacting to anyone or, you know, or in response to any other person. So please know that, and don't make connections or dots -- connect dots that don't exist.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, in your draft resolution, in one of the paragraphs, you speak of an arms embargo in the Darfur region. Exactly how do you have in mind monitoring that? Mr. Secretary General, do you have any ideas? Do you think it's a good idea to have the expectations of an arms embargo in the Darfur region, and did you discuss the situation in the Palestinian territories and how?

SECRETARY POWELL: An embargo is always a different -- a difficult thing to monitor, especially in an area like Darfur where there are many unattended borders. But we believe this should also be the responsibility of the Sudanese Government to disarm these militias and others who have no business having arms. And we hope that the AU monitoring group will also play a role in this and we hope that the NGOs that are in there are pointing out these problems to the AU monitoring group and to the government and to the thousands of police officers that the Sudanese Government says it is moving in, will assist in this.

And, of course, we would work with the international community and the neighbors of Sudan to try to keep any weapons from flowing in and making the situation worse.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, there was a --

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary --

SECRETARY POWELL: I'm sorry, we're not finished -- yeah.

SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: No, I will say that this embargo on arms is always helpful. It also sends a message to the suppliers and the transit countries that the international community is against the export of arms into a conflict zone, and that it will be monitored and there may be a price to pay. And it is intended to dissuade them, send in arms to such a conflict, in addition to what the Secretary of State has said, that the Government of Sudan and others have to do.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary --

SECRETARY POWELL: The Secretary and I are following the situation, but today we focused on the Sudan. But we have stayed in touch on what's been happening in the region as well, the difficulties that are taking place within the Palestinian community, and we are watching to see how the Palestinian leadership, the Palestinian people will resolve the differences that are -- that exist there now.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, your Administration has indicated that it is the Government of Sudan that is actually responsible for the policy that created the situation in Darfur, and it has armed the jingaweit. And my question is, isn't is kind of nonsensical to expect that government to stop and disarm the jingaweit, as the Secretary General said?

SECRETARY POWELL: No, it's not nonsensical at all. Since they turned it on, they can turn it off. The reason is, is there enough incentive for them to turn it off. And we're making it clear to them that there will be consequences if it is not turned off. We were on the threshold of a significant agreement between the north and the south and significant benefits would flow from that agreement, but that agreement has been put at risk by the situation in Darfur.

Now, we also have to realize that there was a rebel movement that that government was responding to, but the response has made the situation far worse rather than improve the situation. Now is the time to turn this off and to get back to the discussions that had started earlier in the month and to elevate these discussions to the highest levels between the rebels and the government in order to find a political solution. And the AU is playing a role in that, as well as the United Nations.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, there was a wire report quoting the Foreign Minister from Sudan as accusing the U.S. and Britain of meddling in his country's humanitarian affairs. How do you respond to that?

SECRETARY POWELL: One person's meddling is another person's attempt to save people who are in desperate trouble. The United States, the United Kingdom and every other nation of the international community that's concerned about this, as well as the United Nations, believes that we have a humanitarian catastrophe on our hands; and it is the responsibility of all nations, through our collective voice at the UN, as well as individually, to speak to the Sudanese Government in very direct terms about the fact that tens of thousands of their citizens have been killed and many tens of thousands more will die if we do not act now, right away, to bring a sense of security to Darfur so that the aid can flow, the humanitarian workers can be safe, wells can be dug, latrines can be dug, food and medicine can be brought in to keep these children that we see on our television screens every day from succumbing.

That's in their interest to do so and it is in our interest as the international community and it is our obligation as the international community to bring this to the attention of the Sudanese Government, not just for the purpose of putting pressure on them but for the purpose of helping them. We come with assistance and aid, not just pressure.

SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: And I also mentioned to the Sudanese that if they do the right thing, if they protect their population and bring the situation under control, nobody would meddle and they will come under no pressure. So the solution is really in their hands if they think the outside world is meddling. Once they do what is right, the meddling will stop.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you.