US President Bush would bring up the genocide in 1994 where Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered in the 100 days of the brutal killings. On a side note, there is a conflict going on in DR Congo where there is a conflict between the government forces and the rebel forces of dissident general Laurent Nkunda. Nkunda had claimed that he is protecting his fellow Tutsis from radical Hutus.
In Rwanda, Bush has made pledges to combat both AIDS and Malaria. Currently, Bush is visiting the nation of Ghana before heading over to Liberia. Recently, Ghana’s President John Kufuor as a representative of the African Union (AU) had headed to Kenya several weeks earlier to mediate talks between Kenya’s reelected president Mwai Kibaki and opposition candidate Raila Odinga. However, the talks broke down prompting former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to take the banner of mediating between the two sides.
During his stay in Rwanda, Bush compared the 1994 Rwandan genocide with the violence going on in Darfur. Almost a quarter of a million people at least have been killed.
“Evil must be confronted,” Bush said while he had toured the Kigali memorial. He also criticized the response by the UN in regards to Darfur. Bush said that it was very bureaucratic to him.
While he would pledge $100 million to Darfur, he stood by his decision not to send US troops.
The issue of Darfur has been one of many issues that had caused a PR nightmare for the Olympic Games in Beijing. Beijing has attempted to keep the politics and the games separate. But, it was easier said than done.
It has been established that China is Sudan’s number one customer in buying its oil. During last year’s Democratic Debate on CNN, former US Democratic hopeful Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico pointed that out. On the issue of Darfur, Richardson gave the suggestion that the United States threaten to drop out to pressure China to do more to stop the genocide.
A few days ago, Hollywood director Steven Spielberg walked off from his position as one of the creative advisers for the Beijing Olympics. In a statement, Spielberg said that he didn’t want to have anything to do with the Olympics because China was not doing enough to stop the killing in Darfur.
US President Bush said that he will be attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. He said that politics and the games were separate. This was before Bush had started his trip to Africa. Bush said he would remind China’s president that there’s more he could do.
John Prescott, the deputy Prime Minister of Great Britain said that the country’s relationship with China should not be allowed to turn bad because of what is going on in Darfur. He said that China alone cannot stop the violence in Darfur.