Britain prepared to finance more help for Sudan Darfur crisis
By ED JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
LONDON, Aug 24, 2004 (AP) — Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain has said that his government is ready to help finance a greatly enlarged African Union force to monitor the humanitarian crisis in the western Sudan region of Darfur.
On his arrival in Khartoum on Monday night, Straw was met at the airport by Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail and taken to the Foreign Ministry for talks on the Darfur situation.
More than 30,000 people have been killed and 1.4 million forced to flee their homes in what the United Nations says is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The African Union already has 80 observers in Darfur, protected by 150 Rwandan troops, to monitor a rarely observed cease-fire between black African rebels and government-backed Arab militias.
British officials said an AU plan taking shape envisaged as many as 1,000 observers and 3,000 troops to monitor a region the size of France with 147 known refugee camps.
“The government of Sudan may need more assistance from the AU, and it’s our job to facilitate it,” said Straw, who plans to meet with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir during his two-day visit to Sudan.
After hour-long talks with Ismail on Monday, Straw said he was pleased with the progress Khartoum had made in insuring access for humanitarian groups in Darfur by planning to grant visas to the British branches of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Ismail said Straw’s visit came at “a critical time in our history.”
“Sudan is ready to work with the international community to bring the situation in Dafur as normal as possible,” Ismail said, but he urged donors to fulfill their pledges of aid to help Sudan through its current rainy season. “What we need is the international community to come up with its obligations so there will be no famine in Darfur.”
He insisted his government had made progress in tackling the humanitarian crisis and improving security for the refugees. He said it was working closely with the African Union monitors.
Briefing reporters during the flight from London, Straw said he had spoken over the weekend with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and told them “we were ready to provide further military facilitation and anything else they wanted.”
Straw said that in coming days he would remain in close touch with Obasanjo, who was hosting peace talks between the Sudanese government and two rebel factions.
Britain already has provided 2 million pounds (US$3.6 million) to support the AU mission and has pledged a further 750,000 pounds (US$1.4 million) for commercial charter planes to transport Nigerian troops to Darfur, the first of whom are expected to arrive later this week. Britain also will provide 6,000 ration packs for the AU mission.
Straw will encourage the South African government to provide military assistance when he visits Cape Town on Wednesday.
Although Britain favors expanding the size of the African Union force, it does not believe its mandate should be expanding to peacekeeping or protecting refugees in Darfur, saying the Sudanese government has the primary responsibility for such a role.
“What we need to see is concrete signs of the government of Sudan being really serious about implementing its obligations,” said Straw. “I want to see relief of the humanitarian crisis and provision of safety and security for the internally displaced persons, which is the most serious and worrying concern at the moment.”
The U.N. Security Council has given the Sudanese government until Aug. 30 to disarm the Arab militias, or face economic and diplomatic penalties.
A senior British official traveling with Straw said he sensed a “slackening of will among international partners” over imposing harsh sanctions on Sudan if it fails to meet the deadline.
He said Britain would prefer a “graduated” response to avoid splitting the U.N. Security Council. He did not elaborate.
Eighteen months of conflict in Darfur have killed tens of thousands of people and driven 1.2 million others from their homes.
British officials say Straw will urge el-Bashir to rein in the Arab militias that are destroying villages and killing and raping black African farmers and their families across the region.
The United Nations says Darfur has become the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis since African rebels rose against the government in February 2003, claiming discrimination in the distribution of scarce resources.
U.N. officials accuse the government of trying to crush the revolt by backing a scorched earth policy carried out by Arab militias known as the Janjaweed.
Khartoum has long denied such accusations, although according to the U.N., it acknowledged last week that it has “control” over some Janjaweed fighters and has promised in the coming week to give the world body a list of militants suspected of involvement in the bloodshed.
London says it has a moral responsibility to help end the crisis in Darfur, which it sees as an obstacle to a comprehensive peace agreement for the whole of Sudan. Britain is the world’s largest cash donor to Sudan, and has allocated 62.5 million pounds (US$113 million) between September 2003 and March 2005.
Like other Western nations, Britain wants the African Union to take the lead, finding African solutions for African problems, but has not ruled out military intervention of its own.