Darfur crisis expected to dominate French foreign minister’s African tour
PARIS, July 24 (AFP) — The crisis in Darfur is expected to dominate a tour of African countries French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier is to begin Monday which will include that violence-wracked region of Sudan as well as Senegal, Chad and South Africa.
Barnier’s visit to Darfur, which has been the scene of bloodshed between rebels and government troops and their brutal affiliated militias for over a year, will take place Tuesday in the middle of his three-day mission.
Talks with the Senegalese, Chadian and South African presidents will focus on that conflict, which the United Nations estimates has killed up to 50,000 people and driven 1.2 million from their homes.
Barnier will arrive in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state in west Sudan, to visit a refugee camp and meet officials from the African Union tasked with overseeing an April 8 ceasefire accord that has largely been ignored.
“This trip shows above all France’s support for a solution to the Darfur crisis,” an official from Barnier’s office said.
France, Britain, the United States and other countries have been exerting increasing pressure on the Sudanese government to end the violence and to rein in the Arab militias, which have been accused of systematic rape and other atrocities against the indigenous black African minorities living in Darfur.
The prospect of international intervention has grown sharply in recent days.
Britain has said it could send 5,000 troops to the region if required, and Australia said it was considering a UN request for military personnel to join a mission there that was expected to be deployed by the end of the year.
The European Union on Saturday warned Sudan’s foreign minister that the country will likely face international sanctions if there is not quick progress in Darfur.
The United States last Thursday put forward a draft UN Security Council resolution authorizing sanctions against Sudan if militia leaders are not brought to justice, while the US Congress unanimously labelled the situation a “genocide”.
Sudan has claimed it is taking steps againt the militias and pledged to help humanitarian aid get to the region, but thus far no improvement has been seen.
Khartoum has rejected the term genocide and the chairman of the Sudanese parliament’s foreign relations committee, Al-Tigani Mustafa, warned a UN resolution would “escalate and complicate rather than solve the Darfur crisis,” according to a report Saturday in the Al-Rai Al-Aam newspaper.
Before leaving on his African tour, Barnier was to attend Monday a meeting of EU foreign ministers that would examine a 200-million-euro (250-million-dollar) European aid package for Darfur.
His first stop Monday will be Senegal to see President Abdoulaye Wade, who visited Paris last Friday.
After going to Darfur the next day, Barnier will cross over the border into neighbouring Chad, to where many refugees have fled.
There, in the border town of Abeche, he will hold talks with President Idriss Deby, who is attempting to act as a mediator in the crisis.
The French minister will wrap up his tour in South Africa on Wednesday for talks on the restive Democratic Republic of Congo, which has accused Rwanda of fomenting a rebellion in its eastern border region. He will meet Rwandan Foreign Minister Charles Murigande in Pretoria after seeing South African President Thabo Mbeki and Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.