Blair’s ‘moral’ duty to act over Sudan

By Ben Hall and David White, The Financial Times

July 23, 2004 — Britain has a moral responsibility to intervene in the humanitarian crisis in Sudan that could involve sending troops there, Tony Blair said yesterday.

The prime minister played down as “premature” reports that Britain was preparing to deploy forces to the western Darfur region, where attacks by Sudanese Arab militia have killed up to 30,000 and left 2m people in desperate need of aid. But he left little doubt about his willingness to consider his sixth overseas military intervention since 1997. “We rule nothing out but we are not at that stage yet,” he said.

Mr Blair has described the state of Africa as a “scar on the conscience of the world”, while the genocide in Rwanda inspired his doctrine of putting humanitarian intervention above state sovereignty.

However, a further expedition could prove contentious in the light of cuts to military personnel unveiled this week and complaints of overstretch, even if the changes are designed to re-shape the armed forces for just that kind of operation. Troops could be used to deliver aid, to support ceasefire monitors or even to protect refugee camps from attack.

“We have a moral responsibility to deal with this and to deal with it by any means that we can,” the prime minister told reporters at Downing Street.

But he said the first step was to increase diplomatic pressure on the Sudanese government and he stressed the need to work by consensus with African governments through the African Union.

Britain has been pressing for a United Nations Security Council resolution setting a deadline for the Sudanese government to control the militia and open up access for aid agencies.

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, said Khartoum was “at best passive, at worst complicit” in the attacks by Arab militia.