Hawkish call to arms ignores realities of Darfur

Here is a copy of a letter by Dave Markland in Vancouver, Canada, published in the Letters section at Straight.com 5 Oct 2006:

Hawkish call to arms ignores realities of Darfur

In July 2004, the report of the UN's International Commission of Inquiry into Darfur concluded that "the Government of Sudan has not pursued a policy of genocide." Instead, horrific attacks by government forces and the Janjaweed are "primarily for purposes of counter-insurgency warfare". Yet nowhere in his piece does Terry Glavin mention the three-year-old rebellion that forms the context for the extreme abuses of human rights being committed in Darfur. While he spares no ink in expressing his desire that Canada "take action" and send a "robust" armed force, Glavin sadly exhausts no effort to deepen his readers' understanding.

For those of us who do wish to educate ourselves about the conflict, an obvious place to start is the leading authority on Sudan, Alex de Waal.

A long-time human-rights advocate, prolific author, and a mediator in this year's multilateral peace talks, de Waal has been unambiguous in his recent comments on the crisis: "The idea of foreign troops fighting their way into Darfur and disarming the Janjaweed militia by force is sheer fantasy," he wrote in the Guardian on September 29. Further, the actions of UN forces operating without the consent of both the Sudanese government and rebel groups would "make the plight of Darfurians even worse". He concludes: "Finding a solution hinges on a sober assessment of what is practical, not on making Darfur a guinea pig for 'the duty to protect' or a test case for a new global moral consciousness."

USA calls emergency Security Council meeting over Sudan letter

Oct 5 2006 AP report via USA Today [via CFD]

The United States demanded an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday over a letter in which Sudan's government said it would view any troop commitments to a future peacekeeping force in Darfur as a "hostile act" and a "prelude to an invasion," a U.S. official said.

In the unsigned letter, dated Oct. 3, Sudan reiterated that it rejects a Security Council resolution passed in August that would seek to give the U.N. authority over an African Union peacekeeping mission that has been unable to stem the violence in Darfur.

The letter was sent to several U.N. missions, including those of New Zealand and Japan, and refers to a note sent by the U.N. asking nations to nominate police personnel for an unspecified force.

"In the absence of Sudan's consent to the deployment of U.N. troops, any volunteering to provide peacekeeping troops to Darfur will be considered as a hostile act, a prelude to an invasion of a member country of the U.N.," the Sudanese letter said.

U.S. mission spokesman Richard Grenell said the United States wants the Security Council to discuss the letter and approve a statement addressing it.

"We've called for an emergency Security Council meeting at 11:30 to discuss the latest Sudanese obstruction of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Darfur," Grenell said.

The letter did, however, repeat previous Sudanese claims that the government would allow the U.N. to help support the African Union peacekeepers. That was reiterated out of Khartoum on Thursday, when the official Sudan News Agency reported that al-Bashir had sent U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan a message welcoming the assistance.

He said that help would enable the AU force to "carry out its most recent mission and duties," the agency reported.

"Cooperation and consultations between the United Nations, the African Union and the Government of National Unity would speed up finding a solution to the question (of Darfur) and help instill a permanent peace in Sudan," al-Bashir said in his message, according to the news agency report.

But a UN spokeswoman said the provision of funds and logistics did not mean the world body was backing off from its plan to put the Darfur mission under UN control.

Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman for the U.N. in Sudan, said the aid offer "is not to be seen as an alternative to a UN deployment" in Darfur.

Head of UN Peacekeeping shuns sending troops without gov't OK

Oct 4 2006 AP report [via Easy Bourse via CFD] excerpt:

The top U.N. peacekeeping official on Wednesday rejected the notion that the U.N. could deploy troops to Sudan's war-wracked Darfur region without a firm political agreement between rebels and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's government.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, said sending international troops to try to stop the continued violence in Darfur - which the U.S. has labeled a genocide - would go well beyond what peacekeepers are supposed to do.
"When you try to apply peacekeeping to any kind of situation and confuse peacekeeping with peace enforcement, you run very quickly into great difficulties," Guehenno said.

[edit]

Guehenno said he believed there was no military solution to the Darfur conflict, suggesting that the international community ought not look to the U.N. "blue helmets" if it wants foreign troops to be the ones who impose peace in Darfur.

He said Darfur was too big at about 200,000 square miles to be policed by a U.N. force unless the force was huge. The current African Union force is about 7,000 strong, while the U.N. force that would take over is pegged at 22,000 troops.

"Anybody who tells me that a half million square kilometers can be policed, that law and order can be imposed by an outside force ... I think is wrong," Guehenno said. "We know from experience that that is not the case."

Head of UN peacekeeping says Darfur needs peace pact before troops

Oct 4 2006 Reuters Evelyn Leopold report [via POTP]

The United Nations cannot send peacekeepers to stop atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region unless a political agreement was in place or no one could find enough troops to patrol the area, the head of U.N. peacekeeping said on Wednesday.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, said an enormous number of troops "which are not forthcoming" would be needed to patrol Darfur.

"When you try to apply peacekeeping to any kind of situation and confuse peacekeeping with peace enforcement, you run very quickly into great difficulties," Guehenno said.

Normally, he said peacekeepers would find some basis for law and order based on a political agreement and then "hit hard on anybody who doesn't really abide by the agreement."

But he said that anyone "who tells me that a half million square kilometers can be policed, that law and order can be imposed by an outside force ... is wrong."

President George W. Bush has called several times for a U.N. force to go into Darfur, which to U.N. officials could mean the troops would have to fight Sudan's army, for which there would be few volunteers.

But human rights groups also have said the world body should not wait any longer. Some diplomats as well as Jan Pronk, the U.N. representative in the Sudan, have suggested that the international community should push for a prolonged and beefed up African Union force.

But Guehenno rejected a "Plan B" and noted that the United Nations was helping the AU with trainers, equipment and logistics experts as a prelude to a U.N. operation.

"Our ... support package may help create a different set of conditions that will allow to a transition to the United Nations," Guehenno told a news conference.

Neighboring Chad, which would welcome peacekeepers, would also prove difficult to mount a U.N. operation, he said.

"We are looking at Chad to see what could be done," Guehenno said, adding that it was "very difficult" and almost as forbidding as Darfur itself.

"I would not want to leave any illusion that a Chad operation would be any easier than in Sudan, in Darfur," he said. Both countries have fractious rebels and armed gangs, fighting for control of refugee camps.

Sudan warns participation in Darfur UN forces is hostile act

Oct 4 2006 AFP report (United Nations) via ST:

Sudan on Wednesday warned African and Arab countries against contributing troops to a proposed UN peacekeeping force for war-torn Darfur, saying doing so would be seen as "a hostile act."

The warning came in a letter sent Tuesday by the Sudan's UN mission to all African and Arab missions here.

In the letter, Sudan restated its "total rejection" of the deployment of up to 20,000 UN peacekeepers as mandated by the Security Council in late August to shore up the fragile Darfur peace agreement.

"In the absence of Sudan's consent to the deployment of UN troops, any volunteering to provide peacekeeping troops to Darfur will be considered as a hostile act, a prelude to an invasion of a member country of the UN," it added.

The letter noted that Khartoum "fully supports" the African Union (AU)'s decision to extend the mandate of its cash-strapped 7,200-strong force in Darfur for three months until December 31 after receiving promises of financial and logistical support from the United Nations and Arab states.

The AU said last month it would boost its contingent in Darfur to 11,000 troops and the UN agreed to send 105 staff officers and technical experts to bolster the AU force there.

Also last month, the Security Council unanimously agreed to extend the mandate of the 12,273-strong UN force in southern Sudan for two weeks until October 8 and boosting it to up to 20,000 so that it could be shifted to Darfur.

In Khartoum earlier Wednesday, the Sudanese foreign ministry sounded a conciliatory note.

"Sudan's rejection of the resolution does not imply that the country wants a confrontation with the UN or defiance of the international community," ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadek told SUNA.

"The contacts that have been made and those yet to be made all lie in the context of efforts to find a way out of Sudan's rejection of the resolution in view of the insistence by some countries on implementing it," he added, in an apparent allusion to Britain and the United States.

And Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir gave his approval Wednesday for the UN offer of logistical support to the AU force in Darfur.

- - -

Also, see Oct 4 2006 report - Sudan's Bashir says if the international community insists on UN peacekeepers in Darfur, then Sudan has to choose confrontation.

Sudan's Bashir welcomes UN's support for AMIS

Oct 4 2006 Xinhua report excerpt:

Sudan welcomed the UN support for the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur, the official SUNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir made the announcement in a letter to reply a joint message submitted by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Chairperson of the AU Commission Alpha Oumar Konare last month.

"This support will enable the AU peacekeeping forces in Darfur to carry out their tasks stipulated by the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA)," al-Bashir said.

Sudanese presidential spokesman Mahjoub Fadel Badri said on Tuesday that Annan and Konare's message "contains a plan to provide assistance to the African Union forces in Darfur in the logistic, equipment and consultancy domains."

The exchange of letters between the Sudanese president and the UN and AU chiefs took place as the parties concerned were seeking an outlet to the deadlock on a proposed deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in Darfur. [Xinhua Editor: Mu Xuequan]

Two killed in Janjaweed militia attack on Darfur's Kalma camp

Oct 4 2006 SOAT Human Rights Alert [via ST] Two killed in Janjaweed militia attack on Darfur's Kalma camp

Darfur: Attack on and Killing of IDPs in Kalma IDP Camp

On 04 October 2006, in the early morning, armed militias allegedly the Janjaweed militias attacked Kalama IDP camp in South Darfur. During the attack 2 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were killed and one wounded. The injured man is currently receiving medical care at the IRC clinic in Kalama Camp.

JEM/NRF rebels respond to Bashir statement: JEM/NRF not part of any Darfur ceasefire agreement

On Friday, Sudan's JEM/NRF rebels shelled SLA-Minnawi forces nr Greida, S Darfur - 40 killed. This happened a day after it published its letter to UN SRSG Jan Pronk.

Today, Oct 4 2006, Sudan Tribune published a JEM/NRF press release, issued in response to President Bashir's recent statement pointing out the fact that because the JEM/NRF rebel group has never signed a peace agreement, it is not part of any ceasfire agreement. Copy of JEM/NRF press release, in full:

Sudan's Bashir intends to pursue military solution in Darfur - NRF:

The National Redemption Front (NRF)

Albashir says: "he does not have a ceasefire agreement with the NRF"

October 3, 2006 - Just hours after our positive response to Mr. Pronk's appeal to honour holy Ramadan with a ceasefire in Darfur and give peace mediation a chance, Albashir came up with his declaration of Monday 2nd October that he has no ceasefire agreement with the NRF. Albashir's unfortunate declaration effectively re-affirms his declared intention to pursue military solution as his sole and only way out of the Darfur conflict. We on our part would like to re-assure the peace loving people of Sudan and the international community at large that we will never give in to his military muscles and will not accept any settlement that is not based on a negotiated just peace. Albashir will be responsible for any repercussions that his statement entails.

The Executive Secretariat

National Redemption Front

Bashir-Moussa meeting centered on reinforcing AMIS with Arab-African forces in addition to UN logistical and material support

News reports that say Sudan is considering UN logistical and material support, usually make clear the support does not include UN troops. The following report reminds us Sudan is president of Arab League. Next year, it hopes to preside over the African Union. Surely these are huge opportunities for Khartoum to do what's right for Sudan and all of its citizens.

Oct 3 2006 AFP report via ReliefWeb - Sudan open to dialogue with UN over Darfur:

Sudan continues to opposes deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force to war-torn Darfur but is open to discussing UN support for an African Union force already there, an official said Tuesday.

"The Sudanese government is sticking to its position of rejecting UN Security Council Resolution 1706 but does not reject dialogue with the UN because the Sudan is a member of the organisation," said presidential press Secretary Mahjub Fadul Bedry.

The Sudanese government has come under mounting pressure to agree to the deployment of up to 20,000 UN peacekeepers as mandated by Resolution 1706 to replace weak, underfunded African Union (AU) troops, but President Omar al-Beshir has repeatedly rejected any such deployment.

Bedry was speaking after a meeting in Khartoum of Beshir with Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa and Foreign Minister Lam Akol, during which Akol handed Beshir a message from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

He said Annan's message contained "a plan for backing African Union forces in Darfur with logistics, equipment and consultative expertise."

The Khartoum government, Bedry said, "is seeking a way out of the crisis the UN put itself in with the Sudan."

He added: "We support any effort that can assist the African mission in carrying out its duties of keeping peace and sponsoring the Abuja agreement." That was a reference to a peace deal signed between Khartoum and one of the rebel groups in Darfur.

Bedry described Annan's message as good, adding that Beshir would respond positively.

Bedry said Mussa had pledged to continue efforts for rallying support to the African Union and its forces. The Beshir-Mussa meeting "centered on improving the situation in Darfur and reinforcing the AU mission with Arab-African forces in addition to UN logistical and material support."

He explained that those reiforcements should hail from Arab countries in Africa.

Mussa arrived in Khartoum late Monday. Earlier Tuesday he conferred with Akol on the developments in the Darfur crisis.

"The talks also covered the Arab position towards the current issues as well as the Arab League programmes and meetings as the Sudan is the president of the current Arab summit," Mussa said after his meeting with Akol.

"President Beshir is planning to launch a comprehensive initiative in the coming period for reactivating cooperation with the United Nations and the African Union for implementation and expansion of the Abuja umbrella," he said.

Commenting on a suggestion for deploying Arab-Muslim troops in Darfur, Mussa said: "It is left to the Sudan to decide on whether to accept or turn down this proposal."

He said his visit to Sudan came as part of an Arab diplomatic drive for dealing with the international position towards the situation in Darfur and finding a way out of the problem which "is aggravated by time due to the erroneous information reported about it."

The Arab League Secretary General reiterated his commitment to "absolute cooperation between the Arab League and the African Union for finding a comprehensive settlement to the Darfur issue and achieving stability in the region."

Sudan's Bashir says if the international community insists on UN peacekeepers in Darfur, then Sudan has to choose confrontation

Oct 3 2006 Xinhua report via ST - Sudan's president says no ceasefire with new Darfur rebel group. Excerpt:

"We do not have a ceasefire with the NRF, which was formed after the signing of Darfur Peace Agreement," Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir told a Ramadan breakfast party organized by Sudanese Copt Church Monday evening, according to the report.

He said that the rebel group was set up in order to disrupt the peace agreement by attacking the forces of Minni Menawi, the leader of a former rebel faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement who signed the peace agreement with the government on May 5.

This statement is considered as an official recognition of the last month government attacks on Darfur rebel positions.

Al-Bashir reiterated his government's refusal of the UN Security Council resolution 1706, which calls for the deployment of international peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

"If the international society insists on the UN peacekeepers deployment in Darfur, then the country has to choose confrontation," the Sudanese president said.

Note, Sudan's president has said all along, his word is final.

Darfur activists' priority is UN peacekeepers - Alex de Waal says putting UN troops on the ground would "inflame the situation"

Oct 4 2006 Christian Science Monitor report - Student activists rise again - this time for Darfur. Excerpt:

"The grass-roots people have really kept the issue alive and forced the hand of the governments," says Alex de Waal, a fellow of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University, who has been advising the African Union on Darfur. He says the UN Security Council's decision in March 2005 to refer Darfur war crimes cases to the International Criminal Court and the US move two years ago to label the conflict "genocide" would not have happened without advocates' pressure.

Activists' priority: UN peacekeepers

As the situation has worsened, activists have pushed for change. Most advocates want UN peacekeepers sent to Darfur.

"I think [grass-roots efforts] have made [Darfur] almost a top-tier issue for the Bush administration," says John Prendergast, a senior adviser of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. "There's no question [President] Bush feels political pressure to respond."

Mr. Bush said Monday the UN should send peacekeepers without delay.

One reason the Darfur movement has succeeded - where many similar international efforts have failed - is the US move to label the crisis genocide. "The comparison of Darfur to [the 1994 genocide in] Rwanda is what has been most potent here," says Eric Reeves, a Darfur analyst and Smith College professor.

While appearances by celebrities like George Clooney have been crucial, grass-roots efforts have made the difference - especially those of young people, he adds. "A lot of students now really only know Rwanda as historical event, and there is a resolve that this will not happen on their watch.... You have to go back to apartheid-era South Africa to find [a movement] this powerful for an issue that doesn't involve US blood or treasure."

STAND, the student antigenocide group, is an example. Since April, it has grown from seven to 55 chapters. When Ms. Cato brought Paul Rusesabagina, the Rwandan whose story inspired the movie "Hotel Rwanda," to her campus last Wednesday, he packed the 750-seat auditorium with an overflow audience of at least 1,200 people. "We're young, idealistic, and we're horrified that genocide can go on in this world," Cato explains.

Still, activists face an uphill battle. The Sudanese government has rejected a Security Council resolution passed last month that calls for 22,000 UN troops to replace the underfunded 7,000-member African Union force.

Conflicting priorities for US

The US also has reasons not to push the Khartoum-based government too hard, observers say. Sudan has helped the US penetrate terror networks it might never have been able to on its own. Also, the US does not want to provoke further instability, says Mr. de Waal. Putting UN troops on the ground would "inflame the situation," he says.

Many ideas to solve Darfur's crisis -- Moussa

Oct 3 2006 Cairo Kuna:

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa stressed on Tuesday that there are "many" proposed ideas to solve the conflict in Darfur, saying the solution must not be regarding security only.

Speaking to Sout Al-Arab (Voice of the Arabs) radio via phone from Khartoum, Moussa said solving the conflict needs rebuilding the region and achieving reconciliation.

He pointed out that he met, during his current visit to Khartoum, with Sudanese officials and the UN delegate to Sudan, stressing that the talks concentrated on how to defuse the crisis in a way that assures achieving security and stability in the region.

Meanwhile, Moussa emphasized in an interview published in Cairo on Tuesday that the situation in Darfur is still disturbing, saying he believes there are "opportunities" to reach an agreement that will satisfy the Sudanese government and will allow the UN and the African Union (AU) to work together.

Prior to leaving Cairo to Sudan on Monday, Moussa called Arab countries to financially fund the AU forces in Darfur, as agreed upon in the last Arab summit.

Darfuris find refuge with SPLM in Kauda, central Sudan

Oct 2 2006 AFP report [via ST] re IDP camp in Kauda, central Sudan, a stronghold of the SPLM.

SPLM warns against sabotage of CPA

The deputy secretary general of SPLM Yasir Arman said there are those who seek to use Darfur crisis to sabotage South Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). He invited Sudan's political leadership to act with wisdom, saying statements on the CPA cancellation will lead to more confrontations in the country.

Ibrahim Ahmed Omar, the deputy chairman of the ruling National Congress Party threatened last week to cancel the CPA if the UN troops intervene in Darfur with the SPLM support. Full story Sudan Tribune 3 Oct 2006.

We must mobilise pressure and fear to save Darfur (Tom Lantos)

Tom Lantos, author of an opinion piece published by the FT 26 Sep 2006 [hat tip POTP] is the senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and the founding co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. Excerpt from the piece:

"I will continue to push for the immediate deployment of Nato assets as part of a transitional operation to stop the atrocities while the UN forces are deployed. If Khartoum persists in pursuing genocide, I support military action to neutralise those military forces employed by Sudan to attack civilians or to inhibit peacekeepers from their deployment."

Yee Haw! You and whose army Mr Lantos?

Sudan's Bashir seems open to idea of strengthening AMIS with more support from the UN

Oct 3 2006 Reuters report - AU will not abandon Darfur - AU chairman - excerpt:

The African Union will not abandon Darfur but it needs more international support if it is to continue its peacekeeping mission, the AU commission chairman said in a meeting with European Union leaders on Monday.

"Under no circumstance can we leave Darfur without peacekeeping forces. But we know we must strengthen our forces," AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare told a news briefing at the group's headquarters in Addis Ababa.

The chairmen of both the AU Commission and the European Commission vowed to work with the government of Sudan to find an acceptable formula for maintaining troops in Darfur.

"We want to avoid the Rwanda syndrome where the international community goes out and does not fulfil its responsibility," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, referring to the 1994 genocide.

"In the current situation, the African Union cannot assume completely the job if it does not have an important contribution from the U.N.," Michel told reporters.

Talks in Addis Ababa followed a 24-hour visit by the EU group to Sudan to try to break the impasse over peacekeepers.

Faced with a stalemate over peacekeepers, aid officials and diplomats have begun discussing an option called AU-Plus. This would involve an extended AU Darfur mission, augmented by U.N. support, with greater policing power for African troops.

During talks with the EU envoys on Saturday evening in Khartoum, Bashir seemed open to the idea of strengthening the AU mission with more support from the United Nations, the head of the EU in Sudan, Kent Degerfelt, told Reuters.

"It would not be troops but logistical and financial support," Degerfelt said.

Konare and Michel said they still supported a transfer to the United Nations but admitted that could not happen as long as Khartoum rejected the plan.

They stressed that the international community needed to reassure the Sudanese government that there was no hidden agenda, and that one way to do so was to put more pressure on rebels who had not signed the Darfur peace agreement.

The EU is the biggest contributor to the AU mission in Darfur, giving 242 million euro ($307 million) since it was launched.

Asked whether the EU would continue to fund the AU forces if it needed to extend its mission, Barroso said he was confident it would be possible.

Theatre in London aims for debate on Darfur

Oct 2 2006 BBC:

A north London theatre is to stage seven plays which it hopes will be "a forum for debate" about the conflict in Darfur. The season at the Tricycle in Kilburn will also feature panel discussions. The project was inspired by a BBC interview where actress Mia Farrow called for greater action after 2m people were displaced from their homes. Director Charlotte Westenra said she hoped to "get people talking and encourage them to find out more".

THE TRICYCLE'S DARFUR PLAYS

Michael Bhim - Distant Violence
Amy Evans - Many Men's Wives
Jennifer Farmer - Words Word Words
Carlo Gebler - Silhouette
Juliet Gilkes - Bilad al-Sudan
Lynn Nottage - Give, Again?
Winsome Pinnock - IDP

The work of writers such as Michael Bhim, Juliet Gilkes and Lynn Nottage will be seen at the theatre from 24 to 28 October.

I hope Daniel Davies is able to attend and report on it. Daniel lives in North London and blogs at D-squared Digest and Crooked Timber.

Read Daniel's Strange bedfellows. Excerpt:

If one takes seriously the fact that Darfur is facing immediate humanitarian crisis, then the only priority at the moment has to be to get some sort of peacekeeping force in there which is sufficient to allow the aid agencies to work. The Sudanese government definitely ought to let UNMIS in, and their attempt to run out the clock on AMIS definitely ought to count against them (in hell if not in the ICC, as I have said before). I frankly consider the UN's behaviour with respect to AMIS to be absolutely scandalous and would vastly rather see a credible African mission being funded, but this does not look politically possible at present, so UNMIS it is, although not at the expense of war.

The relentless urge to action rather than inaction

British economist Daniel Davies has a blog entry at Crooked Timber on The relentless urge to action rather than inaction - and writes this gem of a line:

As I've said repeatedly with respect to Darfur, it's the height of irresponsibility to demand "action" without saying what that action might be, or to provide some kind of sensible assessment of its likely consequences.

I wish the Eric Reeves' of this world would read that line and remember the last part of it when they call for "non-consensual intervention."

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.

Who in Sudan benefits from Western sanctions and disinvestment campaigns?

This caught my eye - a line from an opinion piece [via ST 2 Oct 2006] by Magoub El-Tigani, a member of the Sudanese Writers' Union:

President al-Bashir emphasized his government "would find the support it needs from trade with non-Western nations."

It seems to me, sanctions and disinvestment campaigns are counter productive if they force Sudan to trade with non-Western nations and unscrupulous operators.

Oct 1 2006 Observer report by Conal Walsh - Stop investing in Sudan's genocide, MPs tell firms [via POTP] Excerpt:

British exports to Sudan were worth GBP 140m last year - up more than 50 per cent on the figure for 2004. Shell, one of a few western companies involved in Sudan's fledgling oil industry, declined to comment on the call for disinvestment.