Press Release/Commentary by ESPAC posted on March 18, 2006 at 11:22:59: EST (-5 GMT)

NATO-LED UN DARFUR INTERVENTION WOULD BECOME ANOTHER IRAQ

The European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council
Date of Publication: 15 March 2006

In February 2006, US President George Bush called for a NATO-supported
United Nations intervention in Darfur. From 2003 onwards a
tribally-based insurgency in Sudan’s western region has resulted in a
humanitarian catastrophe which in turn became the epicentre of an
international crisis. The African Union has played a key role in
brokering peace talks between two rebel movements and the Sudanese
government. It has also provided a peacekeeping mission within Darfur.

The Director of the European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, Dr David
Hoile, today warned of the consequences of the calls by the United
States for a NATO-led UN intervention in Darfur to replace the African
Union mission:

“The first point to make is that the Bush Administration’s focus on
Darfur is intrinsically flawed – motivated as it is by the same
domestic anti-Islamic constituencies that led the US and Britain into
the present disaster in Iraq. That focus is based upon two false claims,
namely that genocide is being perpetrated in Darfur and that the African
Union is unable to adequately perform its mission in Darfur.”

The European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council believes that while the
United Nations has performed well in stabilising the humanitarian needs
of the hundreds of thousands of war-affected civilians in Darfur, any UN
military intervention, especially one associated with western NATO
forces would be disastrous. Dr Hoile has noted:

“Any UN or NATO intervention in Darfur would serve as a focus for
anti-Western forces in the Horn of Africa and the African Sahel region,
areas that are strategic to western interests and central to the war on
terrorism. Such an intervention would also fuel radical Islamist forces
within Sudan and would serve to undermine the present Government of
National Unity in Khartoum and destabilise the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement signed in January 2005 which ended Sudan’s 50-year long
North-South civil war. We would see another Iraq-type disaster in a
strategically vital part of the world that is also politically delicate
and religiously fragile.”

It is worth noting that the UN Special Envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, has
himself spoken of the possible al-Qaeda threat to Sudan and western
interests that might be posed by western intervention.

It is clear that the African Union is the only international entity able
to address the peace-keeping and ceasefire monitoring needs that will
underpin a peaceful solution to the Darfur conflict. Dr Hoile has said
that a continuing African Union engagement in Darfur is vital:

“Darfur is the AU’s first involvement with peace-keeping. It cannot
be allowed to fail. It is ironic that while decrying the AU’s efforts
in Darfur and calling for NATO and UN involvement in the region, the US
has been withholding the very funds that it has previously promised to
enable the AU to succeed in Darfur.”

The European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council continues to call for a
negotiated settlement of the Darfur crisis. Dr Hoile has stated that:

“There must be a peaceful resolution of the Darfur conflict. Africans
can resolve their own problems. African conflicts should in any instance
not be the playthings of domestic political constituencies within the
United States – constituencies which have a vested interest in a
destabilised Africa and Middle East.”

For an in-depth examination of the Darfur crisis please see the updated
edition of the European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council’s study,
“Darfur in Perspective”, the first book to present an alternative
perspective on the conflict. It is available on-line at
http://www.darfurinperspective.com/pdf/Darfur-Book-New-Edition.pdf

A plain text version of the first edition (published in 2005) is also
available at http://www.darfurinperspective.com

The director Dr David Hoile, can be contacted by telephone on 020 7872
5434 (international + 44 20 7872 5434) or by e-mail at
director@espac.org.