British experts attached to AU will be using Sudanese govt resources to help develop a media campaign extolling DPA

Sep 30 2006 Guardian report by Jonathan Steele in El Fasher, Darfur - excerpt:

It now emerges that Britain is working with the Sudanese government to try to sell the peace deal in the camps.

Hilary Benn's department is funding Simon Haselock and Andrew Harker, two British experts with Bosnian experience, to help develop a media campaign extolling the peace agreement. Although they are attached to the African Union, which is in charge of monitoring the faltering peace deal, they will be using Sudanese government resources.

A programme on the deal's merits will be broadcast on three state-owned radio stations, and focus groups will be invited to listen to them and discuss the topics raised.

Theatre groups will go round the camps, doing role-playing to say why the deal's opponents are wrong. Whether this will be enough to change the doubters' minds remains to be seen.

Diplomats are also offering talks in the hope of getting the non-signers to think again.

[via POTP]