French ex-PM suggests oil embargo to stop Darfur genocide
Feb 26, 2007 (PARIS) — French former Prime Minister has urged Monday strong measures against Sudan to stop what he described as genocide in Darfur. He further said that an oil embargo could force Sudan to stop this human tragedy.
Laurent Fabius, a former Socialist French prime minister and a senior member of Ségolène Royal’s presidential election campaign team, has called for “strong measures” in the UN Security Council, including an oil embargo, to stop the “genocide” in the Sudanese province of Darfur.
Fabius told French Europe 1 radio that he had spent several days in camps on the border between Chad and Darfur. “This is really hell, there’s no other word for it, it’s hell,” he said. “Three hundred thousand people have been killed in four years, with the active complicity of Sudan’s president.”
Fabius said the international community was not doing anything, “so France must really say loud and clear that there must be an end to what is the biggest massacre at the start of the 21st century”. He criticized President Jacques Chirac for receiving Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, “a chief slaughterer”, in Cannes earlier this month for the 24th France-Africa summit.
“First there are gestures to be made in the humanitarian field, to provide funds so that people can be received,” he said, “and then there are strong gestures to be made in the Security Council, by accusing notably China, which is blocking things.” He added that “this is a region as big as France which is going to be emptied of its population little by little. This is genocide.”
According to Fabius, “Sudan cannot exist if the international community imposes an embargo”. “If an embargo, notably an oil embargo, were to be decided on, believe me, things would change,” he said.
Laurent Fabius, who served as prime minister from 1984 to 1986, joined Ségolène Royal’s “presidential pact team” last week, together with other senior Socialist Party politicians. He was given special responsibility for foreign affairs.
(ST)