France’s Sarkozy urges world to be firm with Sudan
June 25, 2007 (PARIS) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged world powers Monday to take a tough line with Sudan if it balks at efforts to end bloodshed in Darfur, and argued that ignoring the situation was tantamount to complicity.
“Silence kills,” Sarkozy told ministers from some 20 nations taking part in a one-day meeting in Paris to shore up the peace process in Darfur.
“Now we know that the absence of a decision and the absence of a response is unacceptable,” he said. “Sudan must know that if it cooperates, we will help it greatly and that if it refuses, we will be firm,”
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the international community had failed to do enough to end the four-year conflict that has left at least 200,000 dead and driven more than two million from their homes.
“I do not think that the international community has really lived up to its responsibilities here,” said Rice on Sunday.
Rice was joining representatives from China, Sudan’s top oil customer and arms supplier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and officials from some 15 other nations including Egypt, Japan and Russia.
Sarkozy said the international community must also be “firm” toward rebel groups who refuse to enter into peace talks with Khartoum.
“I believe that the firmness of the international community is the only way to bring everyone into talks,” said Sarkozy.
Neither Sudan nor the rebels were represented at the conference, held after President Omar al-Beshir bowed to months of pressure and agreed to a new peace force for Darfur under the United Nations and the African Union.
Rice said it was important for Khartoum to deliver on its promise to allow the 20,000-strong AU-UN force into Darfur to bolster the 7,000 ill-equipped AU soldiers who have failed to stop the violence since their deployment in 2004.
The success of the Paris conference will ultimately “come down to the will to insist that the government in Khartoum permit the UN hybrid force with the AU to … intervene,” she said.
The war in Darfur is pitting a rebel insurgency against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum and its proxy militia known as the Janjaweed, whose leader stands accused of war crimes.
The United States has described the violence in Darfur as a genocide and moved to tighten sanctions on Sudan despite opposition from China.
Beijing however is showing a new willingness to use its leverage with Sudan by taking part in the meeting.
China has been facing calls from activists to improve its human rights record ahead of the 2008 Olympics and promoting peace in Darfur could be key in that effort.
Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner have made Darfur a high priority amid concern for the instability spreading to neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic, two French allies in the region.
France earlier this month launched an air bridge to ferry aid to Darfur victims in eastern Chad and is considering a humanitarian force to help some 500,000 internally displaced Chadians and refugees from Darfur in camps in eastern Chad.
Defence Minister Herve Morin said French troops will “probably” be the largest continent in the new AU-UN force for Darfur and that it could be deployed early next year “at the latest.”
The African Union, which has brokered peace talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebels, is also not taking part in the meeting that it sees as duplicating its own efforts.
Sarkozy announced that France will give 10 million euros (13.5 million dollars) to help the AU force in Darfur.
(AFP)