Paris - A meeting in Paris aimed at hastening a political
resolution to the Darfur crisis ended Monday with participants
agreeing to redouble efforts to deploy a peacekeeping force in the
troubled region in western Sudan.
At a press conference following the four-hour conference, the
host, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, said the meeting had
revealed 'glimmers of hope' and suggested that another conference on
Darfur would take place in September, this time with the
participation of the African Union.
No African nation was represented at Monday's meeting. The
government in Khartoum refused to attend, complaining that it had not
been consulted.
In addition to Kouchner, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and representatives from China,
Russia, Japan and Germany took part in the meeting.
Rice again criticized Sudan's leaders, charging they were not
respecting previous agreements.
'There is a history of backtracking,' Rice said. 'We lost a lot of
time. Agreements have been made and not met. There must be
consequences if (the government of Sudan) does not live up to its
promises.'
Rice also said that the humanitarian situation in Darfur 'will
deteriorate if there is no security.' Since January, an additional
150,000 people have been forced to leave the region because of the
continuing violence.
Participants at the meeting want to deploy a peacekeeping force
composed of 20,000 UN and African Union soldiers.
Ban said he was optimistic that Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir
would permit the deployment of the troops. 'He wrote me a letter
saying that he would do it soon,' Ban said. 'I believe him, but now
he must show that he means it.'
Ban also called on the Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government
to sit down again for negotiations to end the civil war, which has
killed more than 200,000 people and displaced another 2 million.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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