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What is the EU policy with regards to Darfur? What should the policy be? ... What should European Union policy be in Darfur? Are we paying too much or too little attention to the region?
Personally, I think the EU is not paying any attention to Darfur. I am guilty of the same. A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
That was my general impression but not being on the ground I wasn't sure if that was correct or not. Is there anything one can do about it?
In searching the French papers I didn't find much mention of Darfur recently except for a Le Monde wire service story about the Human Rights Watch report and an article in Libreration on Hassan al-Tourabi and his role in Sudan. Does that seem to be the pattern throughout Europe? If the topic is nowhere in the press the pressure for it to be on the political radar is also low, I would imagine.
I'm no expert on the Darfur situation and, from what I understand the tensions have a long 20 year history with a sharp rise in violence since 2003 and, according to the Le Monde article, between 180 000 et 300 000 deaths depending on estimates along with two million displaced persons, several tens of thousands of whom took refuge in the eastern of Chad.
Doctors without Borders, a humanitarian organization which has worked in the Darfour region for many years now, provides their recent perspective on their web site with an article on Darfur, Sudan: 'The chronic insecurity has led us to redefine and step up our activities' and Chad - 'Everyday brings one or more wounded to Adré Hospital'. I'll be interested to hear what the Medecin du Monde perpesctive is on RFI this saturday. The broadcasts get archived so anyone with the computer capacity can listen to the interview by going here after the Saturday broadcast.
The European Union is closely following the Darfur peace talks in Abuja, the seventh round of which began at the end of November. The EU Special Representative for Sudan, Pekka Haavisto, has visited the talks twice during this round, and several member states are represented there. The EU welcomes the progress that has been made in the wealthsharing commission since the beginning of the round. But it is gravely concerned at the lack of progress on the other two tracks (power-sharing and security arrangements) in the first two and a half weeks..... The EU reiterates its full support to the African Union-led mediation team and commends it for its tireless efforts in these talks.
The EU is also deeply concerned by the continuing violations of the ceasefire agreements in Darfur. It calls on all sides to stop such attacks immediately and to refrain from any action that might aggravate the situation in Darfur and in Chad.
The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.
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