France to participate in Sudan donors conference?
PARIS, June 2, 2004 (KUNA) — France will send Thursday its Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs, State Secretary Renaud Muselier to attend the donors conference for the Darfur region of Sudan, official sources announced on Wednesday.
The Sudan meeting, scheduled to take place in Geneva, aims to highlight the disastrous humanitarian situation affecting the civilian population of Darfur, Western Sudan, which has been caught up in a war opposing the government forces in Khartoum and opposition rebels.
“The humanitarian situation in the Darfur region will be examined, as well as the question of the protection of civilian populations victim of the ongoing armed conflict,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said.
The need for humanitarian organizations to have access to the region is also one of the key questions on the agenda for the Geneva talks.
Many organizations say that Sudanese authorities have been preventing them from reaching refugees displaced by the fighting and in great distress.
The distribution of aid to these remote regions will also be one of the questions under examination by the Ministerial-level meeting.
France said on Wednesday that the presence of its Junior Minister for Foreign Affairs attests to the concern felt in Paris about the situation in Western Sudan and also underlines French availability to take part in efforts to find a solution to the conflict.
The French government has been particularly active over the past several months in maintaining contacts with Khartoum over the negotiations for an end to violence between Sudan and a number of rebel groups.
A number of Ministers, including the French Foreign and Trade Ministers, visited Khartoum to promote peace and offer support.
Agreements have been reached with all rebels groups except for the Darfur region and France has been urging a rapid solution to this problem in exchange for economic aid and investment and improved ties between Paris and Khartoum.