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Darfur Crisis

General Bashir had said that in the absence of a peace agreement he was not prepared to consider a UN mission coming in. The best information that I have currently is that the Sudanese Government have indicated that they are thinking about that, but I have not seen a definitive answer. The issue is relevant to a point that I intend to make about the UN Security Council’s decision on Tuesday. If the hon. Gentleman will bear with me, I shall come to that. The third thing that we have done is provide support for a peace agreement. As we all recognise, the only answer is for people to stop fighting and to use politics, debate, argument and elections to determine what will happen in Darfur, rather than killing each other and innocent citizens of that region. That is why we have offered a lot of support to the African Union. It is important that we should recognise that the process has been led by the African Union. In the same way as security and the work of AMIS have been an African-led process, so too have the peace talks in Abuja. We have kept a presence there, and the then Foreign Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Blackburn (Mr. Straw), now the Leader of the House of Commons, travelled there in February—to be a bit unparliamentary about it—to read the Riot Act to those who had been negotiating and say that, frankly, our patience was running out, not least because the international community was paying for the consequences of the war. We are all paying to keep people in the camps because of the failure of the parties to the conflict to do what they did—in the north and the south—when they finally fought themselves to a standstill and realised that Sudan would never progress while people continued to fight. They can do exactly the same thing again if they want. That is why the African Union set a deadline of 30 April for the next phase of the negotiation. The AU tabled an agreement. The Sudanese Government said that they were prepared to sign, but the three rebel movements said that they were not. It became clear over the weekend just before the local elections—that is how I remember the date—that the negotiations were in difficulty. That is when I and Bob Zoellick, the US Deputy Secretary of State, along with one or two others, went to Abuja to see whether we could help out, with the extremely skilful support and assistance of President Obasanjo of Nigeria—he was brilliant, if I may say so. In trying to get the parties to focus on what needed to be done in that four-day period, during the final stages of the negotiations, we proposed some further changes to the agreement, to try to bring the rebel movements on board. On 5 May there was a signing, at which the Government of Sudan and the largest rebel movement, led by Minni Minnawi put their signatures to the agreement. That was a significant moment, but challenges remain. I hope that it will still be possible for the two other rebel movements—the faction of the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement, led by Abdel Wahed, and the Justice And Equality Movement, led by Khalil Ibrahim—to sign. Those two need to be on board, particularly Abdel Wahed’s group, because although the Justice And Equality Movement has a national political objective, it has a small number of fighters in Darfur, whereas the other two groups are concerned particularly about Darfur. The agreement provides for power sharing, with a guaranteed significant role for the rebels in Darfur, in the Government in Khartoum. It provides for wealth sharing, including arrangements for compensation for individuals who have lost their homes. The agreement provides for peace and security with a ceasefire, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration, and would deal with the Janjaweed, moving a large number of the rebel forces into the Sudanese army. Above all, the agreement would provide what the rebels have been fighting for; namely, regional government for Darfur. The agreement says that, within a maximum of three years, subject to a referendum and the will of the people of Darfur, if they vote for regional government, they will get regional government. In those circumstances, what is the justification for carrying on fighting? Or, are the rebels are so impatient that they are not prepared to allow people to express a view and to wait a maximum of three years? By the way, in-between there will be elections to all state legislative councils and national elections in Sudan, which the comprehensive peace agreement provides. In my view, there is no justification whatever. I want to make progress because I know that many hon. Members want to speak. What is the immediate task? The first is for the people of Darfur to know what is in the agreement. That is urgent. The African Union is working on that as we speak, with help from the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. We have also been in conversation with the BBC World Service, which has tried to publicise the agreement. The second task is to work with the parties—the Government in Sudan and Minni Minnawi’s group—to ensure that they get on with it. At a practical level, we have offered English language training to Minni Minnawi who requested that for 100 members of his group. We are also looking at ways to support him in setting up an office. Those are practical matters for anyone who wants to take the post provided for in the transition and who will be the senior assistant to the President and the fourth person in the presidency with significant influence over the composition of the transitional regional authority. Where that person will be based, when they will get to work and when they will go to Khartoum are practical issues in implementing the agreement. Frankly, there are ways in which we could make life difficult for those who stand in the way of peace. Above all, the agreement provides for the people of Darfur to participate in what is known as the Darfur-Darfur dialogue, but there is an issue about the extent to which the movements represent all the people of Darfur. The crisis is complex and the Darfur-Darfur dialogue is a convocation of people—the final agreement refers to 800 to 1,000 representatives. It would be one way of testing how people feel about the way forward and ensuring that there is an inclusive process to bring together all the tribes, interests and other views to ensure that progress can be made. On Monday, the AU Peace and Security Council welcomed the agreement, called for its implementation and confirmed—I refer to the point made by the hon. Member for Edinburgh, West (John Barrett)—that transfer to the United Nations mission should go ahead. The AU Peace and Security Council previously said that that is what it wanted in principle and that preparations should take place, but it has now confirmed that that is what should now occur. The following day, UN Security Council resolution 1679, which the UK co-sponsored, was passed unanimously and called on the parties to implement the agreement, urged the other rebel groups to sign it, and called for the strengthening of AMIS, an acceleration of the transition to a UN force and an immediate end to violence and atrocities. Now that we have a peace agreement signed by at least one of the rebel movements we must go ahead with the practical tasks in hand, particularly the rapid deployment of a UN force. International pressure must be maintained on the Government of Sudan—the hon. Member for Edinburgh, West referred to this—because just as there is no justification for carrying on fighting now that there is an agreement, there is no justification in my view for the Government of Sudan to resist or obstruct in any way the preparations for a UN handover. After all, there is already a UN force in south Sudan—UNMIS—which is helping to oversee the implementation of the north-south peace agreement. There cannot be any objection in principle to having UN forces in Darfur. The immediate test is to give visas to the planning mission so that they can go to Darfur and start asking the questions that the hon. Member for Buckingham and others asked.