FRANK WOLF CALLS ON SECRETARY KERRY TO APPOINT NEW SUDAN SPECIAL ENVOY

US CONGRESSMAN FRANK WOLF CALLS ON SECRETARY Kary
 
Washington, D.C. (February 12, 2013) – Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) today said the appointment of a special envoy to Sudan should be a top priority for new Secretary of State John Kerry.
In a letter to Kerry today, Wolf recommended someone like former Senator Russ Feingold for the position. He wrote that Feingold, who served with Kerry on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chaired the Subcommittee on African Affairs, “possesses both the stature and the knowledge necessary
 
Wolf praised the work of former Senator John Danforth during his tenure as special envoy under President Bush, and called for a similar “high-profile” individual with enough stature to “communicate a clear sense of urgency and priority on the part of the U.S.” to take over the role. Wolf was the driving force behind the creation of a special envoy to Sudan in 2001.
In describing Danforth’s tenure as special envoy, Wolf wrote that “his leadership was in fact instrumental in securing, after two and a half years of negotiations, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), thereby bringing an end to the war.”
Since then, Wolf said; hope for continued peace has waned.
In the years that followed, America has rightly been viewed as a guarantor of the peace given how intimately involved we were in the CPA process,” he wrote. “Sadly, that peace is now in jeopardy.”
Wolf cited tension between Sudan and South Sudan, refugees fleeing violence and starvation in the Nuba Mountains, and genocide in Darfur.
Our approach to Sudan and South Sudan needs reinvigorating,” Wolf concluded. “While an envoy alone does not a policy make, a high-profile special envoy, from outside the department, with the knowledge and mandate to aggressively pursue peace, security and justice for the people of Sudan and South Sudan, is an important step in the right direction.”