VOA标准英语10月-Senior US Diplomat Travels to Africa for Talks on

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is sending the top U.S. diplomat¹ for Africa to Kinshasa for talks on the violence and humanitarian² crisis in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the DRC. Assistant Secretary for State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer will also have talks with Rwandan officials. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

The decision to send Frazer to the area reflects growing U.S. concern about the resurgence³ of violence in the eastern DRC, which has displaced tens of thousands of people in an area where humanitarian conditions are already tenuous⁴.
　

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer at a meeting with regional heads of state in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss Somalia's crisis, 29 Oct. 2008

The assistant secretary of state, who attended a meeting in Nairobi this week on the situation in Somalia, is due in the DRC capital Thursday, and will either go on to Kigali or hold telephone talks with Rwandan leaders.

Fighting in the eastern DRC, under way on and off for more than a decade, has surged in recent weeks with clashes between a rebel group and the Congolese army, and U.N. peacekeepers caught in the crossfire⁵.

At a news briefing, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice dispatched Frazer to Kinshasa after telephone contacts with, among others, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht.

He said Frazer, in her discussions with officials of the DRC and Rwanda, will explore ways to defuse regional tensions.

He added, "A lot of these tensions result from various ethnic⁷ groups in those regions, in the Great Lakes region, as well tensions that exist between Rwanda and the DRC. So we are working to try to, as best we can, minimize those tensions, work the political side, support the U.N. in its efforts to get more troops in there and get more capabilities⁸ in there. That's a U.N. process but we support them in doing that."

A State Department statement issued late Tuesday expressed deep U.S. concern about the worsening humanitarian situation in the eastern DRC, and called for all parties to meet commitments to recent cease-fire and renunciation of force agreements.
　

General Laurent Nkunda

It specifically urged the ethnic-Tutsi Congolese rebel group led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda - the CNDP - to avoid further fighting, rescind⁹ its call for open revolt against the DRC, and resume talks with the democratically elected and internationally recognized government in Kinshasa.

The State Department called for the mainly ethnic-Hutu rebel group active in the area - the FDLR - to also lay down its arms, disband and demobilize.

A senior official who spoke⁶ to reporters here said U.S. officials are concerned about reports of outside support for rebels in Congo, from Rwanda among other places.

Tuesday's statement called for all the countries of the Great Lakes region to work together to enhance stability and respect each other's sovereignty.

The senior official said the U.S. Agency for International Development is considering ways to get additional relief aid into the area but that the fighting makes deliveries very difficult.

1 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

2 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

3 resurgence   

n.再起，复活，再现

参考例句：

• A resurgence of his grief swept over Nim.悲痛又涌上了尼姆的心头。
• Police say drugs traffickers are behind the resurgence of violence.警方说毒贩是暴力活动重新抬头的罪魁祸首。

4 tenuous   

adj.细薄的，稀薄的，空洞的

参考例句：

• He has a rather tenuous grasp of reality.他对现实认识很肤浅。
• The air ten miles above the earth is very tenuous.距离地面十公里的空气十分稀薄。

5 crossfire   

n.被卷进争端

参考例句：

• They say they are caught in the crossfire between the education establishment and the government.他们称自己被卷进了教育机构与政府之间的争端。
• When two industrial giants clash,small companies can get caught in the crossfire.两大工业企业争斗之下，小公司遭受池鱼之殃。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

8 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

9 rescind   

v.废除，取消

参考例句：

• They accepted his advice and rescinded the original plan.他们听从了他的劝告，撤销了原计划。
• Trade Union leaders have demanded the government rescind the price rise.工会领导已经要求政府阻止价格上涨。