VOA常速英语2007年-Bush Meets Leader of Sudan's South

By Scott Stearns
Washington
15 November 2007

U.S. President George Bush met Thursday at the White House with Sudan's First Vice¹ President Salva Kiir to discuss efforts to keep the country's peace process on track and end violence in the troubled Darfur region. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story.

U.S. National Security Council Spokesman Gordon Johndroe says the two men discussed ways to reinvigorate Sudan's comprehensive peace agreement between the government in Khartoum and southern rebels.

Johndroe says Kiir thanked the president for his help in negotiating the peace agreement and his continued commitment to its success. In addition to his post in the national government, Kiir is also the president of southern Sudan, which became a semi-autonomous region under the 2005 peace deal.

Johndroe says President Bush encouraged Kiir to continue his efforts to unite rebels in Darfur in their attempts to forge a unified² political settlement with Khartoum.

The two men met privately³ in the Oval Office and did not speak to reporters.

The deal that ended 21 years of civil war in Sudan continues to face obstacles with former rebels led by Kiir demanding the withdrawal⁴ of northern Sudanese troops from the south. The former fighters also want more control over oil-producing regions in their areas.

Those conflicts led the Sudan People's Liberation Movement to withdraw its ministers from the national government last month.

White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino says President Bush would like to see more cooperation from Khartoum in the deployment⁵ of a planned United Nations peacekeeping force to relieve an undermanned African Union force already in Darfur.

A joint⁶ UN/AU force of 26,000 is expected to be on the ground next year. The head of UN peacekeeping says that force could fail unless Khartoum stops blocking deployments from armies outside Africa including units from Thailand, Nepal, and Nordic countries.

Violence in Darfur has killed an estimated 200,000 people and displaced an additional 2.5 million since 2003.

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

3 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

4 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

5 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

6 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。