An international meeting on Darfur called by newly-elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy ended Monday with parties agreeing to continue to support current efforts to bring peace to the conflict-ridden region.
However, the African Union boycotted the meeting and the Sudanese government, Darfur rebels and neighboring countries were not invited. The BBC reported that the AU regarded the meeting as a distraction from its mediation efforts.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the meeting as a contact group for the international community. Members of the Group of Eight nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom and China were represented.
Sarkozy organized the meeting at the Élysée Palace, his official residence in Paris. Since he took office, France has become a more vocal voice on Darfur in the international community.
“As human beings, and as politicians, we must resolve the crisis in Darfur,” Sarkozy told delegates at the meeting. “Silence kills. We want to mobilize the international community to say 'enough is enough.’”
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the meeting at a press conference afterward as a chance “to take stock of where we are and to make sure that we are doing everything we can. We really must redouble our efforts.”
In a joint news conference yesterday with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Rice said the international community had not lived up to its responsibilities on Darfur.
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On Sunday, Kouchner described the objective of the meeting as “not a ‘peacekeeping meeting,’ but … a meeting to support the international efforts that have been deployed.” Humanitarian work was not enough, he said.
China's special envoy to Sudan, Liu Guijin, told Reuters that Sudan is willing to negotiate with the rebel groups: "I met with President al-Bashir… He told me that the Sudanese government actually is ready to come to the negotiating table, at any time, in any place."
Observers see China as key to ending the violence in Darfur, which has claimed over 200,000 lives, because Beijing has a close relationship with the government in Khartoum.
“A strategic division of labor between Washington, Paris, and Beijing could yield a very effective good cop/bad cop, insider/outsider approach to bringing peace and stability to Sudan,” John Prendergast and Colin Thomas-Jensen of the Enough Project, recently wrote in a strategy paper.
Prendergast and Thomas-Jensen, both experts on the situation in Darfur, see the increased international attention on Darfur as crucial: “Historians will look back at the perfect diplomatic storm that is brewing and either say, 'What a missed opportunity,' or alternatively, 'That was indeed the turning point in ending Darfur's agony.'”
