Critical UN aide now lauds US, UK on Darfur
Oct 2, 2006 (BRUSSELS) — A United Nations official who infuriated Washington by accusing the United States and Britain of “megaphone diplomacy” over Sudan changed tack on Monday, praising both countries for keeping the issue alive.
Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown said on a visit to Brussels he was convinced President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were “on the right side” in seeking to end what he called an outrage in Darfur.
“On Darfur, the two leaders, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair are moral stalwarts on what needs to be done,” he said.
But he said it was clear that Sudan did not respond well to ultimatums delivered from New York, Washington, London or Brussels and a new diplomatic approach was needed to engage the Sudanese government.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton demanded an apology last Friday after Malloch Brown said in an interview with The Independent newspaper that Blair and Bush needed “to get beyond this posturing and grandstanding.”
Fighting among militias, government forces and rebel groups has ravaged Sudan’s vast region for three years, resulting in the killing of an estimated 200,000 people and the displacement of 2.5 million others.
The Sudanese government, accused of supporting the militias, has refused to allow the United Nations to send in a 22,000-strong force to replace 7,000 African Union troops and has accused it of attempting to recolonize the country.
Malloch Brown said a broader coalition of countries was needed to press Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to put an end to “an outrage” — including China and Arab states.
He also called for a more realistic medium-term “carrot and stick” strategy to give Sudan, a long poor country enjoying an oil boom, an interest in cooperating over Darfur while keeping a potential “choke hold” on trade and more war crimes indictments against Sudanese officials if it did not comply.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso visited Khartoum and Darfur on Saturday and Sunday to seek a formula for ending the conflict and humanitarian crisis in western Sudan acceptable to both Bashir and the international community.
(Reuters)