UN's Pronk: We need mature diplomacy and a package of give and take - Darfur needs a peacekeeping force that can stay many years

UN SRSG Jan Pronk Weblog Oct 1 2006 - excerpt:

Military presence is required to keep a cease fire and to protect the people against attacks from all sides. Peace keeping by military has to go hand in hand with political efforts to tackle the root causes of the conflict. That may take years and for that reason we need a peace keeping force that can stay many years.

We need mature diplomacy. We may even need to negotiate a package, whether we like it or not, consisting of give and take: Sudan could be offered, for instance, the lifting of trade sanctions, debt relief, the normalization of diplomatic relations (all due since the signing of the Nairobi peace agreement between North and South) and cooperation in the field of security.

In my statement [to the UN Security Council] I argued that, in order to break through the stalemate, all parties should get off the present collision course. We cannot afford to lose time anymore. We lost already too much time this year.

Note, Mr Pronk reveals that in meetings Sudan's President Bashir is polite, rather soft spoken, but firm, leaving no room for doubt but in his public appearances he is eloquent, using harsh language and statements that incite the people.