Interview With Andrea Koppel of CNN
Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Abu Shouk Camp, Al Fashar, Sudan
July 21, 2005
MS. KOPPEL: You were just welcomed by these children, by so many others. They are looking to you as the representative
of the most powerful government in the world to help them, to protect them and to help them get home safely. What can
you tell them?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, that is why I am here. It is so that everyone knows about these children and about
the women here. The international community needs to help -- it is helping. I have been so impressed with the
nongovernmental organization workers who are here from many, many international NGOs who are literally working day in
and day out to try to help these people. I also, as you know, talked to the government in (inaudible) and I do think
there just has to be concerted international effort, concerted international focus, on helping to improve the security
situation here, so that these people can go home.
MS. KOPPEL: Okay. But with all due respect, Madame Secretary, a year ago your predecessor Colin Powell stood here and
he came to this very camp and spoke with the officials in Khartoum, one of whom (inaudible) of this country and was
promised that the violence would end. We know since then there are now perhaps 300,000 Sudanese who have been killed and
more than two million refugees. Why do you believe them this time?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, it is not a matter of believing them. It is not a matter of believing them. I said to the
Sudanese government that they had a credibility problem with the international community because there are promises that
have not been kept. But it is a new day in Sudan as well. I just met, as you know, with John Garang. There is a peace
agreement between north and south. They are forming a national unity government with people who also lived in terrible
conditions at one time in this country. And so we have to support that process while insisting that the unified Sudanese
government do everything that it can to improve the situation.
You also notice, Andrea, I welcomed at the airport the Rwandan soldiers who were being airlifted in by NATO and others
are being brought here by the EU. Security has got to improve for these people and I will talk to the AU about that.
MS. KOPPEL: Well, specifically, I know you just met with women who've been victimized, raped. I, myself, spoke with one
woman who said she knew of 70 cases in this camp alone of women who left, and she says were raped by government forces.
I want to ask you, not just as top U.S. diplomat, but as a woman and as an African-American woman, what do you say to
them?
SECRETARY RICE: Well, the stories are unbelievable, but they are true. And so I said to them that we would try to make
it better, that we would go and we would see what more could be done about the security. It is also the case that I want
to be careful because some of these women spoke in the deepest confidence, as I am sure that they did with you. But
obviously, violence against women is a serious problem and we have got to have a better response to violence against
women. The Sudanese government gave us a white paper on what they could do, what they thought they could do to improve
these conditions for women. We are going to take a look at that and we need to demand action.
MS. KOPPEL: I know you've read the briefing papers. I know that you have heard from your deputy what the situation is
like here. Does it make a difference you being here?
SECRETARY RICE: Of course, it makes a difference.
MS. KOPPEL: To you, in --
SECRETARY RICE: Of course, because you need to see firsthand. That's why I wanted to come here, because I wanted to see
firsthand.
MS. KOPPEL: But give us a feeling, tell the American people what it is like.
SECRETARY RICE: I understand at a level that I think you can only understand by being here that it is, of course, a
complex issue because in the long run, these children need to be schooled in their homes. That means that there has to
be somehow protection for these villages, the ability for a peace settlement. That's the long term. But in the short
term, we have got to keep everything that we can going to the humanitarian assistance to these people and to improve the
security. And, so again, I will go back. I will talk to the AU. We will talk about how we can get more forces here. The
Sudanese government said they would accept whatever numbers the AU could provide. I am counting on that because now that
there is a new government in Sudan, they have to realize that the united government of Sudan has a responsibility for
this and the international community is going to hold them to it.
MS. KOPPEL: Thank you very much.
SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. 2005/T12-7
ENDS