[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 40 (Monday, October 9, 2006)]
[Page 1712]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Meeting With Special Envoy for 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.
    Mr. 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.
    Mr. Natsios. Thank you.

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