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From Sudan to the East River

John Danforth's unsung service.

Jun 21, 2004, Vol. 9, No. 39 • By NINA SHEA
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JOHN DANFORTH is back in the public eye. He was Nancy Reagan's longstanding choice to preside at her husband's funeral, which was held on Friday, just a week after President Bush nominated Danforth to represent the United States at the United Nations. To understand why this former senator who retired from politics nearly ten years ago is suddenly in the spotlight, it is necessary to appreciate the magnitude of his achievement on a matter close to President Bush's heart, the resolution of the genocidal civil war in southern Sudan.

As U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Danforth was the instrumental figure in achieving a set of substantive agreements signed by the warring parties on May 26. These protocols clear the way for a final peace accord ending the 21-year conflict, which has pitted the Islamist government in Khartoum against non-Muslims in the south and the central Nuba mountains. (This is not to be confused with the long-simmering conflict in the western Sudanese state of Darfur, which erupted in war earlier this year.) Twice as costly in lives as the Rwandan genocide, the north-south war in Sudan has been a concern of Bush's since he took office.

Soon after his inauguration, Bush took steps to ensure that U.S. aid--routinely blocked by Khartoum--reached the needy. And he became the first president to emphasize the Sudanese conflict in a public speech. In a departure from previous policy--a Clinton administration white paper had called Sudan a "back-burner" issue--Bush laid the blame for the bloodshed squarely on the National Islamic Front regime, whose crimes he likened to the Holocaust.

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