Pronking about Darfur

From Lebanon's Daily Star:

The United Nations' envoy to Sudan tried to ease the pressure on Khartoum after a flurry of indictments of the government's failure to end the crisis in Darfur drew irate reactions from President Omar al-Beshir.

Jan Pronk, quoted Thursday in the Akhbar al-Yowm daily, said an action plan agreed to by Khartoum "does not set 30 days as a deadline but as a period which can be renewed and amended until all provisions" of a Security Council resolution are implemented.

The action plan for Darfur signed Tuesday by Pronk and Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail gave the authorities 30 days to create safe areas for civilians to search for food and cultivate their land without fear of attack.

The deal was already backtracking on a July 30 UN Security Council resolution giving Khartoum 30 days to crack down on the pro-government Arab janjaweed militias, which are accused of committing atrocities against the black African population in Darfur.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy on the ground was trying to ease the war of words which has been escalating between the world body and Khartoum.

Clearly the most important task here, as Pronk has realised, is not to offend the Sudanese government.

Meanwhile the African Union is on the case. In an exciting new development a meeting has been proposed:

On Thursday Libyan Foreign Minister Abderrahman Shalgham said that Tripoli had proposed to the African Union that it stage a meeting of all the parties in the Darfur conflict.

Shalgham, in an interview with the Egyptian government-owned Al-Ahram daily, said the Sudanese government should be helped to carry out its commitments, and warned against the dispatch of Western troops to Darfur.

"It would be a disaster," he said. "Islamists would come from everywhere on the pretext of fighting a holy war, the people of Darfur would also fight, the problem would become more difficult and Darfur would become a new Afghanistan, a second Iraq."

Interesting take on things there: the man is worried that Darfur could become a new Iraq or Afghanistan. Fifty odd thousand massacred so far, a million or so displaced, many more deaths almost certain as the murder and rape continues unabated....Iraq and Afghanistan are oases of sanity in comparison. The main priority apparently is that the Sudanese government should be helped to carry out its commitments. By now we know all too well what those commitments are, and what they entail for the wretched black Africans of Darfur.

Comments

[Martin Adamson]

I think we all know what the result of the next UN Security Council meeting will be. "Some signs of progress on the ground...much still to do...report back again in 30 days..." Repeat as necessary.