'What Darfur teaches us' - debate between Jan Pronk and David Mepham
"Sometimes to save lives, you have to take lives"
"There is no peace. More than two million people were evicted and they have no perspective." Jan Pronk, former Special Representative Secretary General of the United Nations in Sudan, Khartoum, describes the harrowing situation in Darfur. In a well-filled Bonbonnière, last Thursday evening, he engaged in a debate with David Mepham, head of the international programme of the London Institute for Public Policy Research. The event was held in the framework of the Maastricht Debates.
"Militia are chasing people, telling them never to come back home. There is ethnic cleansing." Former minister of Development Co-operation Pronk repeats what we already know: "The situation in Darfur is extremely cruel." But that is not why he and David Mepham have come to Maastricht. They concentrate more on the question what has happened to the international support for the region in the west of Sudan. The UN Security Council and the International community are given a hard time. "The only thing the Security Council has done is to pass resolutions. Actually, they have been doing nothing," Jan Pronk argues. And David Mepham: "We have to get serious about the resolutions. Governments don't do what they say they will do."
How can things be improved? Jan Pronk: "It is very important to recognize that every conflict is different. There is no uniform approach. Furthermore, if there's no peace, it doesn't make sense to send a peacekeeping force. Then we need a peace making force." David Mepham agrees: "A non-military operation is no option." Sending an intervention force is difficult at the moment. "The Arab/Islamic world sees humanitarian interventions as an attack, because of wars such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan. The UN isn't seen as a protector. And there is no use in saying that the UN is not the US."
Initially, the debate is anything but fiery because both men agree on the basics. It is only when the audience is invited to ask questions that things liven up. The proposal to give more UN members a right of veto is brushed from the table just as quickly as it appeared. The inevitable question about Pronk's web log, which was the cause for his departure from Sudan, is also asked. Jan Pronk replies calmly: "I made a mistake; they found a reason to kick me out. But otherwise they would have found something else a week later."
Even though the focus was on the indecisive international community, the audience in the Bonbonnière last Thursday did not get away without some urgent advice from David Mepham either: "There is also a critical role for civil society. It's something we can all make a contribution to."
Pauline Ketelaars
The next Maastricht debate will take place on 25 April, again at the Bonbonnière. Topic: Israel and the Palestinian territories
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05/04/07