Aus Foreign Minister and Sudan
Some time ago I’d written to the Australian Foreign Minister to bring to his
attention the situation in Darfur, and to ask him to work exert what pressure he
could to bring about a stronger AU force with a better mandate.
Today I got a reply from Foreign Affairs Dept., and it put a slightly different
slant on the situation with the AU than I had expected. It said in part:
While the AU believes that it can handle the situation in Darfur without
recourse to Western assistance and the GoS (Government of Sudan) remains
opposed to such intervention, there is little that other concerned countries and
organisations can do. An offer in 2004 to the AU by Australia to provide military
transport assistance to move AU peace monitors to Darfur was not taken up and
although we have indicated a willingness to consider alternative forms of assistance,
there has been no approach so far. We remain willing to consider requests for
logistical assistance should they be forthcoming.
The letter goes on to talk about the A$40m assistance to the region by
Australia, and the fact that there is now small United Nations mission which
includes in its mandate the support of AU troops. All this is, from Australia’s
point of view, a reasonable effort to do what it can in the circumstances.
There is a level of outrage missing from this equation of reasonableness,
however, and it may well be expressed privately but in my opinion it’s about time
it was expressed publicly. This is especially true of the country most able to
lead a call for sanctions, for Sudan to be seriously threatened with pariah status –
the US. As much as the US is persona non grata in the Muslim world, and even
in the sub-saharan Africa that must find accommodation with the Muslim north,
it’s in a better position to grandstand than a small distant country like Australia.
As a postscript I should find out more about how the politics of the AU work,
and why there’s a reluctance to face reality there.
