[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book II)]
[January 5, 2009]
[Pages 1513-1515]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks Following a Meeting With First Vice President of Sudan and
President of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit
January 5, 2009
President Bush. I'm proud to be meeting again with the Vice
President of Sudan. He's a friend of mine. He is a strong leader who is
dealing with a very difficult situation.
We talked about two important subjects. One is the north-south
agreement in Sudan. It's a vital agreement, and it's going to be very
important for the United States to pay attention to the implementation
of this agreement. And the Vice President brought me up to date on what
has been accomplished and what still remains to be accomplished.
And I thank you for, one, your clear briefing, but also your
leadership on this important issue.
And then the Vice President and I discussed Darfur. And he has taken
the lead in helping the rebels come together so that there would be a
more unified voice in negotiating a--hopefully, negotiating a peace with
the Bashir Government.
I informed the Vice President that I have provided a waiver to the
State Department so they can begin to move 240 containers worth of heavy
equipment into Darfur and that the Defense Department will be flying
Rwanda equipment into Darfur to help facilitate the peacekeeping
missions there.
So I want to thank you very much for coming back. It's good to be
with you. He asked me whether or not I was going to still care about
Sudan--after all, the north-south agreement was negotiated under my
watch--and my answer is, absolutely, Mr. Vice President.
Finally, I've been--Secretary Rice was
just here, and prior to Vice President's arrival we did talk about Gaza.
I've been closely monitoring the situation in Gaza. I understand
Israel's desire to protect itself and that the situation now taking
place in Gaza was caused by Hamas. Instead of caring about the people of
Gaza, Hamas decided to use Gaza to launch rockets to kill innocent
Israelis. And Israel has obviously decided to protect herself and her
people.
The United States is concerned about the humanitarian crisis. We
care about the people of Gaza and, therefore, have provided millions of
dollars of fresh aid to the United Nations to help.
And finally, all of us, of course, would like to see violence stop,
but not at expense of an agreement that does not prevent the crisis from
happening again. I know people are saying, let's have that cease-fire,
and those are noble ambitions. But any cease-fire must have the
conditions in it so that Hamas does not use Gaza as a place from which
to launch rockets.
There is many hopeful signs in the Middle East. Democracy is taking
hold in parts of the world, in the Middle East, but the Hamas reminds us
that there are people
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who are willing to kill innocent people to stop the advance of free
societies. And the challenge for those of us who long for peace, Mr.
Vice President, is to recognize the realities of the world, recognize
we're in the midst of an ideological conflict, and work with the agents
of peace.
I am still hopeful that some day there will be a Palestinian state
living side by side with Israel in peace. I believe the Palestinian
Authority under President Abbas
has got the capacity and the foresight and the vision necessary to see
that become a reality. In the meantime, all of us are going to have to
deal with Hamas, those who threaten peace, those who want to deny the
existence of a peaceful Palestinian state.
And so I welcome you, Mr. Vice President. Thank you for coming.
I told the Vice President his hat made me feel very much at home.
[Laughter]
Vice President Kiir. Well, Your Excellency, thank you very much once
again, and we are happy to be in the White House today. And I discussed
with the--His Excellency the President the issues that he has raised,
but mostly we came here to thank him and his administration for the
commitment they have shown to the people of Sudan to bring peace and
continue to monitor that peace, which ended the 21-year war. And that
peace will remain in his records, that he was the only one who was able
to continue monitoring the peace, negotiating it until it was signed.
This peace is now in existence. And we came to thank him and the
whole administration and to wish him the best of his luck in his private
missions that he's now going to take up after the assignment in the
White House.
We have also told His Excellency the President that the people of
Southern Sudan, the people of the marginalized areas in the whole Sudan,
will never forget him for all that he has done to them. And the people
in Darfur, in particular, will still be looking forward to seeing to it
that peace is brought to Darfur. It is a joint mission that we have
taken upon ourselves, together with them, that we have to bring peace to
Darfur the way we have brought peace to Southern Sudan.
We have also talked issues of the LRA, that is the Lord's Resistance
Army in northern Uganda, which has now shifted to Congo and Southern
Sudan, and how to handle it. This is a terrorist organization that does
not have any respect of human life. And we'll have to deal with it so
that they have to accept the regional changes that are happening and to
be brought to--under control.
So this is in brief that I came to the White House, to pass to His
Excellency the President of the United States of America, and to keep
Sudan very close to his heart. Even if he becomes a private citizen in
this country, he will still have a role to play. And we came to pass him
also our Christmas and New Year's greetings since we have not met during
the Christmas.
Thank you very much.
President Bush. Thank you, Mr. Vice President.
Thank you.
Note: The President spoke at 11:10 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Umar Hassan Ahmad al-
Bashir of Sudan; and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian
Authority.
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