EU seeks big-name envoy for Darfur

By David Cronin

Date: 07/07/05

EU diplomats have drawn up a remit for an envoy to co-ordinate its response to the conflict in western Sudan.

Yet while the UK, the new holder of the EU presidency, has placed the appointment of an envoy on the agenda for the next meeting of EU foreign ministers (18-19 July), some officials believe the appointment may take several more weeks.

Swedish diplomat Sten Rylander is currently the main candidate for the post. He has been representing the Union at peace talks between the warring parties in Sudan held in Abuja, Nigeria. But given that the situation in the Darfur province is one of the gravest humanitarian crises in the world, some EU governments have been searching for a higher-profile candidate.

Under terms of reference agreed by the political and security committee at the Council of Ministers, the envoy's task would be to ensure the "maximum effectiveness" of the EU's contribution to the peacekeeping mission led by the African Union (AU). The envoy would be based in Brussels but visits to Khartoum, Abuja and the AU mission's headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, would be "as frequent and extended as may be necessary in the discharge of his/her duties".

Diplomats have also agreed that an EU 'co-ordination cell' should be formed in Addis Ababa, staffed with military, police and political advisors to be seconded by the EU's member states.

The committee's decision does not specify the precise budget and staff that an envoy would have. Yet it does recall that the EU has already allocated Û120 million to the African peace mission. This sum is in addition to Û440m to support the Abuja negotiations and in food and other emergency aid for refugees both within Sudan and those who crossed into neighbouring Chad.

Nonetheless, the UN's Secretary-General Kofi Annan last weekend berated the international community for a "slow, hesitant, uncaring" response to Darfur, where 180,000 people have died and two million have been uprooted since 2003.

Ulrich Delius, an Africa specialist with the German Society of Threatened Peoples, described the appointment of an EU envoy as "too little and too late".

"It is certainly welcome that a delegate is now being chosen but I cannot see what in the short-term he will really contribute," he said. "There are no peace activities in western Sudan. The situation there is alarming, with ongoing fighting between the different liberation movements and the Sudanese army."

Lotte Leicht, Brussels director with Human Rights Watch, said: "Appointing a special envoy could and hopefully will focus the EU on the task ahead: to facilitate security to allow people to go back to plant so that there will be a harvest next year."

The killings in Darfur have been described by leading politicians in the US as genocide and have become the first case referred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Leicht added that an EU envoy would have an important role in liaising with the court's prosecutors to ensure that those indicted of war crimes are brought to justice.

Article reports that EU diplomats drew up a remit for an envoy to co-ordinate its response to the conflict in the Darfur Province, western Sudan.