International response to Darfur on meeting agenda

Key players in the Darfur crisis are meeting in Paris today in a bid to build a unified international response to violence in the troubled region of Sudan - although Sudan itself has not been invited.

French officials said they hope to mobilise the international community at what they called a “pivotal moment” in the four-year conflict, following the Sudanese government’s agreement earlier this month to allow the deployment of a joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in the region.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that she welcomed the fresh energy France’s new conservative-led government has put to the Darfur cause.

“I have seen firsthand the devastation and the difficult circumstances in which people live in Darfur, and I will be very frank,” Rice said in Paris ahead of the meeting. “I do not think that the international community has really lived up to its responsibilities there.”

Officials from the Sudanese government in Khartoum have criticised the daylong meeting – to which they were not invited – insisting it could backfire and cause more harm than good.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner justified the decision to leave Sudan out.

“This is not a ’peacemaking’ meeting, but on the contrary, a meeting to support the international efforts that have been deployed,” he said.

More than 200,000 people have died in the Darfur region of western Sudan and 2.5 million have become refugees since 2003, when local rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect.

Sudan’s government is accused of unleashing in response a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed – a charge it denies.

The UN and Western governments had pressed Sudan for months to accept a plan for a large joint force of UN and AU peacekeepers to replace the overwhelmed 7,000-strong AU force now in Darfur.

Sudan initially accepted the plan in November but then backtracked, before finally agreeing earlier this month. Rice warned Sudan’s government not to renege on its agreement.

Details about the composition, mandate and timetable of the joint force are expected to top discussions at the Paris conference, French officials said.

The conference will include Rice, Kouchner, officials from the United Nations, the Arab League and the European Union, as well as 11 European countries, Egypt and China. The African Union will not be in attendance, French officials said. Chadian Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami said his country – which has seen an influx of tens of thousands of people fleeing Darfur – had not been invited.

China is viewed as a power broker in Sudan because of its heavy investment in the country.

The Asian giant, one of the five UN Security Council permanent members with veto power, has long opposed harsh measures against Sudan over Darfur.

Beijing has dramatically stepped up efforts to end the violence in Darfur in the wake of mounting criticism that threatened to taint the 2008 Olympic Games, which it is hosting.

China has not received a formal request to send soldiers for the AU-UN peacekeeping mission, but officials have said the country is open to contributing troops.

The Sudanese government has voiced its opposition to the conference, warning it could prove counterproductive.

“Any other peace initiative, including the French one, could … contradict the UN-AU initiative and could derail the peace process,” Bekry Mulal, a senior official at Sudan’s Ministry of Information, said on Thursday.

“I think it would have been appropriate of the French government to back the UN-AU initiative, instead of putting forward a new one that could impair the current efforts,” he said.

The head of Collectif Urgence Darfour (Darfur Emergency Group), an umbrella organisation representing French groups lobbying for an end to the conflict, dismissed Sudanese criticism, calling the conference an opportunity for real progress.

Jacky Mamou said the absence of a Sudanese delegation could end up being a positive factor.

“Perhaps those at the conference will be able to say certain things they wouldn’t be able to say in front of the Sudanese,” he said.

Mamou said the success of the meeting would depend on whether delegates are able to define the details of the hybrid force’s deployment.

It is crucial the international community agree on the deployment details to keep Khartoum from backsliding on its commitments, Mamou said.

France had long been less vocal than the United States, Britain and others in pushing for peace in the region, but new French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made Darfur a foreign policy priority since taking office last month.