U.S. Lawmakers Meet Darfur Rebels
U.S. lawmakers who met with Darfur rebels in western Sudan and visited camps for Sudanese refugees in Chad over the weekend said they will be ask Washington to push for U.N. sanctions against the Sudanese government. The lawmakers will also be asking for a larger African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur as well as expanding its mandate beyond being just a protection force to begin enforcing existing cease-fire agreements, a Congressional staff member with the delegation said on condition of anonymity. Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on Africa, traveled to Chad and a border town in neighboring Sudan together with Reps. Barbara Lee, Jim McDermott, Diane Watson and Betty McCollum, the official said, speaking from Chad’s capital, N’djamena. Full Story