International community is failing people in Darfur – UK Blair
Jan 25, 2006 (LONDON) — Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that the global community was failing victims in the strife-torn Darfur region of Sudan.
Blair stressed the need for a surge in African Union peacekeepers and said there would be no improvement in the situation until black rebel groups and the Khartoum government began talks.
“I think the international community is failing people in Darfur,” he told parliament on Wednesday.
Blair said it was crucial that measures his government had been pressing for were taken.
“Those measures have got to include not just the immediate humanitarian help, but also to make sure that the African Union peacekeeping force comes up to its full strength.”
Fighting in the region began in February 2003 between rebels and the government, supported by Arab Janjaweed militias. It is estimated to have cost some 300,000 lives and displaced more than two million refugees.
Blair said: “The only way that the situation in Darfur is going to improve is when there are sufficient numbers of peacekeeping forces on the ground to keep the combatants apart.”
He added it could only improve when “the process of dialogue and peace takes place, which we have been calling for, and obviously where the measures are in place to improve humanitarian help.
“We as the British government have been leading the efforts in this area and will continue to do so.”
The AU is mediating peace talks on the western Darfur region and has deployed a 7,000-strong peacekeeping force.
Blair was asked by Menzies Campbell, the acting leader of the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats, if Britain would press for an increase in AU peacekeeper numbers at the United Nations Security Council.
Campbell asked if Blair would also press to ensure the force had both strength and a mandate, plus a commitment that it would be fully funded, equipped and supported.
Blair replied: “We are doing precisely that. That is the reason why we have pressed for the African Union peacekeeping force to be increased. We fully support the proper funding of that.”
The head of the UN refugee agency on Tuesday appealed to the Security Council to act forcefully to end the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur.
(ST/AFP)