International community ineffective in Darfur: African MPs
May 10, 2007 (MIDRAND, South Africa) — The Pan African Parliament (PAP) on Thursday labelled the international community’s role in solving the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region as unclear and ineffective.
“The role of the international community has not been particularly lucid in Darfur,” said a report by a parliamentary committee on conflict resolution, presented for debate by Swazi parliamentarian Marwick Khumalo.
“If we are to review the actual strategies and divergent interests of the main international actors in the Sudan, it becomes clear that the use of megaphone diplomacy with the National Congress Party has narrowed the margin of engagement rather than broadening it.”
The report was popularly adopted by parliamentarians of PAP, an African Union body created three years ago, which has no legislative powers and serves an advisory role.
The Darfur conflict between rebels and government forces has caused 200,000 deaths and led to two million people being displaced since February 2003, according to the United Nations. Sudan contests the figures, saying the death toll is 9,000.
The committee report urged the PAP to consider a fact-finding mission to Darfur to assess progress with a peace agreement struck between the Sudanese Liberation Movement and government.
Khumalo said funding peace efforts was a problem as western powers willing to give money to fund missions in Darfur insisted on being fully involved in the process.
“The committee observed that there is a problem of funding in Darfur. But they (western donors) cannot give funding and then stay out. They want to be involved in the peace process, even for the purposes of accountability.”
The report described the crisis in Somalia as extremely concerning, and asked parliament to lobby the international community to “focus all diplomatic efforts” on an urgent ceasefire.
On the resolution of the Somali conflict, Khumalo told a press conference there was a need for the warring parties to commit themselves to “a honest political dialogue. With this, I belive they can get somewhere.”
The committee urged the PAP to call on the Ethiopian government to withdraw its troops from Somalia in order to allow the African Union mission to that country, AMISOM, to play its peacekeeping role.
It also urged African states to commit more troops to the mission.
(AFP)