    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
    [October 2, 2006]
    [Page 1742]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Following a Meeting With Special Envoy to Sudan Andrew S.
    Natsios
    October 2, 2006

        The President. Recently, I named my friend Andrew Natsios to be the
    Presidential Special Envoy to Sudan to help us deal with the issue in
    Darfur. The reason I named Andrew is, one, he knows the area well; he's
    been involved in this area for a long period of time. Secondly, he, like
    me, shares a deep concern about the suffering in Darfur.
        We believe the world has a responsibility to respond to what this
    Government has called genocide. And Andrew Natsios is going to help
    rally the world to solve the problem. The United Nations can play an
    important role in helping us achieve our objective, which is to end
    human suffering and deprivation. In my view, the United Nations should
    not wait any longer to approve a blue-helmeted force, a U.N. force of
    peacekeepers to protect the innocent people.
        And Andrew knows my opinion and knows my beliefs. And I appreciate
    him very much implementing the strategy that our Government will develop
    to save lives. And I thank you for your efforts again, and thank you for
    your commitment.
        Special Envoy Natsios. Thank you. I've been going to Sudan now for
    17 years. I know leaders in all regions of the country, and I'm going to
    use those contacts and that history to move this process along. I have a
    great affection, personally, for the Sudanese people, north and south.
    My first trip to Darfur was 17 years ago, during the first Darfur war--
    this is the third war in Darfur in 17 years.
        And I think what our objective is, is not just to have a temporary
    fix for 2 months but to try to deal with the root causes of this so we
    don't have another fourth war in 5 years--should we end this one
    successfully.
        So I'm going to work on that. I think with the President's strong
    support--both of us are committed to this, and we're going to see what
    we can do.
        The President. Thank you, Andrew. Appreciate it.
        Special Envoy Natsios. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:50 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House.