On Darfur, Need for "More Activity from UN," US Envoy Says, France's Chad Support Acknowledged as a Problem

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/usun2darfur061708.html

UNITED NATIONS, June 17 -- The U.S. envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson on Tuesday announced that Khartoum has been asked for permission to open up six additional routes for humanitarian convoys to Darfur. Inner City Press had asked if the UN peacekeepers stationed in El Fasher should rather be deployed to protect at least some of the World Food Program trucks which have been subject to hijacking. Williamson agreed there should be "more activity from the UN." Video here. The non-governmental organizations which stood beside him at the microphone, however, did not speak of what the UN could be doing on the ground, but rather only about obstruction from Khartoum and paralysis by the Security Council, which Mia Farrow and John Prendergast said is due to China, and China alone.

Inner City Press asked if France's unqualified support for the Idriss Deby government of Chad, even as it is accused of supporting attacks on Sudan and recruiting child soldiers, is not at least part of the problem. Prendergast, who has earlier accused Sudan of waging a proxy war against Chad, did not answer this question.

Williamson approached it diplomatically, speaking of "the bleed between Chad and Sudan." He said that the U.S. is "taking an active role" in trying to defuse the "mutual destruction on the border." Apparently referring to France, he said that "some of our friends are taking a more active role as well." But active how? When he led the Security Council delegation in Chad last week, French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert neither delivered nor allowed any criticism of Chad.

Footnote: some of Amb. Ripert's sudden standoffishness with the press during the Council mission became more comprehensible on Tuesday. Sources tell Inner City Press that it was only on the trip that Ripert learned that he would not be getting the job of head of UN Peacekeeping. At the last moment, these sources say, the Ban Ki-moon administration because concerned that Ripert's constant references to Bernard Kouchner might create a problem of split loyalty. And so France was asked for another name, and forwarded that of Alain Le Roy. Who ever takes the job should move quickly to deploy existing UN peacekeepers in Darfur to protect the humanitarian trucks.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/usun2darfur061708.html