Blair is failing Africa

A report, published last week by pressure group Waging Peace, criticises the prime minister for a “policy of appeasement” towards the Sudanese regime - “At a time when Britain trumpets its concern for Africa on the world stage, its record of appeasing the Khartoum junta has been shameful.

The report calls into question its sincerity and credibility.” The document has been circulated to all MPs, British MEPs and members of the House of Lords. Tony Blair’s government is accused of treating the National Islamic Front dictatorship in Khartoum as partners in peace, rather than the architects of genocide.

Evidence from Human Rights Watch, BBC reporters and others has established that Sudanese government policies are directly esponsible for the deaths of an estimated 400,000 people in Darfur. “So long as Britain takes Khartoum at its word, and so long as we do not apply genuine pressure, our words will have as much effect on the Sudanese junta as they did on Slobodan Milosevic ten years ago,” says the report.

Arab Janjaweed militias have ethnically cleansed ninety per cent of the black African villages in Darfur of their population. Last month Oxfam warned that internal refugees now face the prospect of starvation because they have been stopped from returning to their homes and planting crops. The Waging Peace report quotes estimates from military experts who believe as many as 30,000 peacekeepers are needed in Darfur, which is the size of France or Texas. The African Union currently has 2,700 monitors in place, but they are not mandated to stop the militias or rebels attacking, raping and killing civilians, all of which are reported weekly.

Waging Peace is pressing for immediate United Nations action to protect civilians in the remote western region of Sudan. The group has called on Tony Blair to table a Security Council resolution giving peacekeepers a Chapter VII mandate to protect civilians and disarm the militias and rebel groups in Darfur. The report’s author, Becky Tinsley, says, “The international community has repeatedly failed to hold Sudan to its promises to stop killing its own civilians, and to disarm the Janjaweed militias. United Nations resolutions imposing sanctions and a no fly zone have not been enforced. A massively expanded mission of properly trained and supplied peacekeepers is essential to stop the continuing genocide in Darfur. If Tony Blair really cares about Africa he must start acting right now, in Darfur. Otherwise his words are meaningless.”