Paris – The world must be ready to impose sanctions on Sudan if it reneges on its pledge to let more peacekeeping forces into ravaged Darfur, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday.
The Sudanese government has finally agreed to a larger force aimed at stopping four years of killing. But Rice sounded a note of caution amid bland or optimistic assessments by other nations.
“Sudan has a history of agreeing to things and then trying to condition or change them or to backtrack and say, ‘Well, no, we didn’t really agree to that,”‘ Rice said at a conference on Darfur organized by the new conservative-led French government.
The conflict began when African rebels in Sudan’s arid Darfur region took up arms against the central Sudanese government more than four years ago, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudan’s government is accused of unleashing in response a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed. Sudan denies the charge.
“We have lost a lot of time while agreements have been made that have not been kept,” Rice said. “We can no longer afford a situation in Darfur where agreements are made and not kept.”
The U.N. chief, Ban Ki-Moon, insisted at the meeting that “slow but credible and considerable progress” has recently been made to resolve the crisis.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday’s session was not intended to be a peacemaking conference, and Sudan’s government was not invited. Rice said the session allowed participants to “take stock” of the complicated conflict and diplomacy.
