布什会见苏丹第一副总统等(2009-01-05)

President Bush Meets with First Vice 1 President of the Government of National Unity 2 of the Republic of Sudan and President of the Government of Southern Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit

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's dealing 3 with a very difficult situation.

We talked about two important subjects. One is the North-South agreement. It's a vital agreement, and it's going to be very important for the United States to pay attention to the implementation 4 of this agreement. And the Vice President brought me up to date on what has been accomplished 5 and what still remains 6 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 7 the rebels come together so that there would be a more unified 8 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 9 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 the 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 10 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 11 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 stopped -- but not at the 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 are 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 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 12 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 13 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: Your Excellency, thank you very, very much again and we are happy to be in the White House today. And I discussed with 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 record, 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 wish him the best of his life in his private mission 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 marginalization in the whole Sudan, will never forget him for all that he has done for 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 14 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 also talked of the issue 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 this. This is the terrorist of the -- (inaudible) -- that does not have any respect of human rights. 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 end of conflict.

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, because he has a role to play. And we came to pass him also our Christmas and New Year's greeting, to see if you have enjoyed your Christmas.

Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

Thank you.

布什总统会见苏丹共和国第一副总统和南苏丹政府总统。

布什总统：再次与苏丹副总统会晤我感到非常荣幸。他是我的朋友，他正在处理非常艰难的局势，他是一个强有力的领导。

我们谈到了两个重要的话题。一个是南北协议问题。这是一个非常重要的协议，而美国需要关注该协议的执行，这也非常重要。副总统先生告诉我最近取得的成效和接下来需要解决的问题。

我要感谢你简明扼要的报告，还要感谢你在如此重要的问题上发挥的领导力量。

然后我和副总统先生讨论了达尔福尔的问题。在让反叛者走到一起的活动中，他发挥了领导作用，使得与Bashir征服和平协商的声音更加一致。

我告知副总统先生，我向国务院提供了弃权书，这样他们可以开始向达尔福尔地区运送相当于240个集装箱的重型设备，国防部会帮助他们空运卢旺达的设备到达尔福尔，以帮助他们更好地进行该地区的维和任务。

非常感谢你的归来。跟你在一起非常荣幸。他问我是否会继续关心苏丹——毕竟，南北协议是在我的见证下协商达成的——我的答案是，一定会的，副总统先生。

最后，国务卿赖斯已经在那里了，就在副总统先生到来之前，我们曾经讨论了加沙的问题。我一直密切监视加沙地区的形势。我能够理解以色列渴望保护自己，而现在加沙的形势是由哈马斯造成的。他们不关心加沙地区的人民，反而以加沙为基地来发射火箭，残杀无辜的以色列人。很明显，以色列政府决定包围国家，包围人民。

美国很担心现在的人道主义危机。我们非常关心加沙地区的人民，所以，我们向联合国提供了数百万美元的援助来帮助加沙人民。

最后，当然，我们所有人都希望暴力活动尽快停止——但是不是以会再度发生暴力的协议的形式。我知道，人们都说，让我们停火吧，但是那只是崇高的理想。但是任何形式的停火协议都必须有附加条件，这样哈马斯就不能以加沙为基地来发射火箭。

中东地区有许多有希望的信号。民主党已经控制了中东的部分地区。但是，哈马斯提醒我们，还有很多人残杀平民来组织自由社会的形成。对我们这些渴望和平的人来说，副总统先生，我们面临的挑战是，认清世界现状，认清我们处在意识形态的冲突中，我们在代表和平机构。

我仍然希望，有一天，能够有一个巴勒斯坦政府可以和以色列和平共处。我相信，在阿巴斯总统的领导下，巴勒斯坦官方已经拥有了这种能力来将希望变成现实。同时，我们所有人都必须跟哈马斯进行交涉——那些威胁和平的人，那些否认和平的巴勒斯坦政府的人。

所以，欢迎你的到来，副总统先生。感谢你的到来。