France presses for intl financing of peacekeepers for Darfur

June 25, 2007 (PARIS) — France pressed Monday for international financing of a new, enlarged peacekeeping force for Darfur, and decried the world’s lack of action on the crisis there. “Silence is killing,” said President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“The lack of decision and the lack of action is unacceptable,” Sarkozy told delegates from two dozen countries and international organizations that his government gathered in Paris to try to push forward peace efforts for the ravaged Sudanese region.

A French priority was finding funding for the new African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force that Sudan agreed to this month, under much international pressure. Sarkozy’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the soldiers need payment.

“There are already (A.U.) soldiers in Darfur. But these soldiers are badly equipped, they are not paid. We are not going to make progress by increasing the number of soldiers who are unpaid,” he said.

Sarkozy pledged an additional EUR10 million to the existing – and cash-strapped – African Union force. His five-week-old government has made the four-year conflict in Darfur a priority.

Sudan wasn’t invited to the one-day conference, attended by 18 countries, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the European Union and others. Officials from the Sudanese government in Khartoum have said Monday’s conference could backfire and cause more harm than good.

Sarkozy praised Sudan for agreeing to the new hybrid force but insisted, “We must be firm toward belligerents who refuse to join the negotiating table.”

“There are now 19 rebel groups in Sudan and we must exert important pressure so they return to the negotiating table,” added Kouchner.

(AP)