Bush authorizes airlifts in Darfur

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush has ordered an airlift of supplies for international peacekeeping forces in the Darfur region of Sudan to begin immediately.

The White House said in a statement the administration is waiving a requirement to notify Congress 15 days in advance of airlifting equipment to U.N. and African Union peacekeeping troops, Voice of America reported Tuesday.

Waiting for the notification would pose a "substantial risk to human health and welfare," White House national security adviser Steve Hadley said.

Analyst Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and consultant on Sudan for several human rights organizations operating there, said the airlift proposal to move troops and equipment is not new, having been made two months ago.

"I think it's really a question of what there is to move in," Reeves said. "Most of the time since the passage of U.N. resolution 1769, which authorized (the joint United Nations African Union Mission in Darfur), there has been insufficient equipment or manpower that is ready or that Khartoum will permit to deploy."

During Bush's two presidential terms, U.S.-Africa diplomacy with the government of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has been active on several fronts, VOA said. The White House sought to enlist Sudanese support in the war on terrorism, in ending the 22-year civil war and to counter what the U.S. government charges is the policy of genocide being carried out in Darfur, which has led to the slaughter of more than 200,000 citizens and the displacement of more than 2 million.