France’s new foreign minister, the arch-interventionist Bernard Kouchner, is using the crisis in Darfur to try to win France some respect in world affairs
by Tara McCormack
When Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president of France in May, he wasted no time in trying to reassert France’s place on the world stage: he appointed Bernard Kouchner, a long-standing proponent of international intervention, as his foreign minister (1). It is starting to become clear what ‘Kouchner-ism’ might mean for the Third World: the new French foreign secretary has recently made it known that the international community, not the African people, should decide the outcome of conflicts in Africa.
Sarkozy says his top foreign policy priority is Sudan. The conflict there between the central government and various rebel tribal groups has been dragging on since 2003. Large numbers of people have been displaced by the fighting and thousands have died (although the number of people killed is a matter of dispute). The conflict is also affecting neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic, due to both the number of refugees crossing the borders from Sudan and the military action executed by rebels and government forces within these neighbouring states.Last week, Kouchner convened a one-day international conference of the ‘international Darfur crisis outreach group’ in Paris. Those attending included representatives from China, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, the Arab League, and the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon. The stated aim of the conference seemed comprehensive. In his welcome address, Kouchner said that all aspects of the conflict, including resolution, would be covered, from the establishment of an African Union peacekeeping force and the restarting of a political process, to the normalisation of relations between Sudan and Chad. ‘To achieve this’, he declared, ‘today’s meeting will provide an indispensable opportunity for speaking, listening and dialogue’ (2). Speaking about the overall aims of the conference, Sarkozy warned: ‘Silence kills…. We want to mobilise the international community to say that’s enough.’ (3) Condoleezza Rice stressed that the international community had not lived up to its responsibilities on Sudan and Darfur (4).
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