SUDAN: U.S. Envoy Faces Intense Scrutiny over Darfur Policy - IPS

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (IPS) - As U.S. special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration defended the Barack Obama administration's new policy toward the war-torn country on Capitol Hill Thursday, NGOs and a U.N. official reacted with disappointment and impatience.

Before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, Gration faced persistent questioning from some members of Congress over the policy's inclusion of carrots alongside the sticks favoured by most international organisations.

The policy, announced Oct. 19, aims bring the conflict in the western-central Darfur region – which the U.S. and others have labeled as genocide – to an end as well as maintain the peace between the northern and southern Sudan that was established by a 2005 treaty.

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