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Darfur Crisis

I am grateful to have an opportunity to contribute to the debate. I echo the opening remarks of the Secretary of State when he said that the fact that so many Members are here to discuss this important subject reflects the concern that is felt throughout the House about events in Sudan. At the outset, I praise the Government’s contribution to the processes that are in play in Sudan, and the Select Committee, which produced an excellent report earlier this year, and the all-party group on Sudan, which the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) leads so well. I also want to echo the Secretary of State’s final words. He said that the British Government had played a useful—indeed, I would say pivotal—part in the processes that have taken place in recent weeks. He then made the extraordinary understatement that when this very unhappy situation has been resolved, as we all hope it will be, the international community will have cause to reflect on what has happened in recent months and years. He is certainly right about that, as I hope to demonstrate. Kofi Annan’s comments on Monday put the matter into the correct perspective. He stated:"““The agreement signed between the government of Sudan and the largest rebel movement in Darfur on May 5 gives the world one more chance to bring peace to that unhappy region. The Peace and Security Council of the African Union is meeting…to see how best to take the agreement forward. The rest of the world must also engage rapidly and without reservation if the opportunity the agreement offers is not to be lost…Darfur is still far from being at peace. Last Monday, while the United Nation’s top humanitarian envoy was visiting a camp for displaced people, rioting broke out and an interpreter for the African Union Mission…was hacked to death.””" I also pay tribute to the Secretary of State for his efforts. I believe he has been in Darfur on five occasions recently, and the genuine anger that he clearly feels came across when he was last on the ““Today”” programme to comment on recent events. At the heart of the debate are two key factors on which the international community will want to reflect. The first is that it is far from clear that it has learned the lessons of Rwanda. The appalling events that took place there from early April 1994 and over the ensuing 90 days, the paralysis of the international community, and the failure of the organs that are part of the international community and which we expected to react to what was taking place, must have given everyone profound pause for reflection. It is all too obvious that many of those lessons were not learned. They certainly have not been applied to the situation that developed in Darfur. During the past three years, I have been struck not by the progress that has been made, but by how little progress has been made.