The top UN envoy to Sudan on Wednesday said he was confident of achieving a peace agreement on the conflict-ridden Darfur region this year -- provided that troops and money are available.
Troops on the ground must be dramatically boosted from the approximately 2,500 African Union soldiers there now to some 6,000 to 8,000, Jan Pronk said, adding that European financial and logistic support would also be needed.
He spoke after a meeting with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, a day after a donors' conference on Sudan in Oslo, Norway. Barnier said a total of US$4 billion had been pledged at the conference for this year through to 2007. France pledged US$720 million.
Peace in Sudan is "essential" for the international community, Barnier told reporters after meeting with Pronk. He added, however, that without stability there could be no "durable and valid peace."
Both men insisted on the need to increase troops monitoring the situation on the ground.
"I'm quite confident that, with security on the ground in Darfur, with the help of African Union troops and political talks to be resumed this month or next month in Abuja between the government and rebels, [this] can lead to a comprehensive peace agreement on Darfur this year," Pronk said. "It's an objective that I think is possible."
Pronk described the current situation as "crucial" because of recent forward movement to help resolve the conflict, such as the donor's conference and the creation of the International Criminal Court to prosecute suspects involved in the violence.
The Sudanese government has rejected handing suspects to the court, and several hundred Sudanese students staged a sit-in on Wednesday in front of the French embassy to protest Paris' support for a UN resolution demanding trials of war-crimes suspects.
The sit-in was organized by the Khartoum State Students Union, which is dominated by pro-government Islamists.
Barnier stressed that any court action was not aimed at Sudan, but at individuals.
"We won't resolve the question of Darfur without Sudan or against Sudan," Barnier said.
"For the peace, stability of Sudan, nothing can happen without Sudan," he said.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS