Foreign Affairs committee  The United Nations is only what its members want it to be. If the members want a political strategy, there will be one. The trend we have seen recently is for the Security Council, on behalf of all the members, to check off the “peacekeeping” box when there is nothing else, when

Foreign Affairs committee  One of the reasons why the Government of Sudan has chosen to partner with China is that China buys the oil without conditions. There are no conditions attached to their business. There are more conditions now, especially in the last few years, because they are responding to the p

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. The Government of Sudan dictated conditions for the composition of the peacekeeping force, not the African Union. It was the Government of Sudan that asked that the troops be African. This is a specific situation related to peacekeeping. I think there's a lot that c

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. I would mention perhaps two things here. One is the impact on human rights. I think the behaviour, if I may say so, of international oil companies has changed a little bit. In the past, just to open oil fields, a population would have to be cleared forcefully, so a lo

Foreign Affairs committee  As far as the humanitarian situation in Darfur is concerned, there are 85 NGOs operating in Darfur, 13 UN agencies, and only 13 have been expelled. Most of them will probably come back in one form or another. There is a huge humanitarian assistance operation in Darfur. Even if so

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, if south Sudan becomes independent, which is a big if, it could become a client for the peace-building commission. But there are also other configurations being discussed right now. I don't know if you're aware of the initiative on early recovery and stabilization, but ther

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't have an answer at this stage, but I think my recommendation would be that a very serious political evaluation needs to be done about the elections, expectations of elections, conditions of elections, and then the fairness of the process. If the elections end up marginaliz

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. On the helicopters, it has become a media story that the Darfur mission is looking for helicopters. So if Canada were able to provide those helicopters, you would become heroes immediately to the international civil society, at the very least, and certainly

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Oil is a subject of discussion everywhere in Sudan, but it's the most difficult subject because there's very little information coming out. It's not a very transparent business. Right now the economy is governed by the wealth-sharing agreement, which is part of the c

Foreign Affairs committee  It is a symptom of the problem.

Foreign Affairs committee  Discussions on a strategy are going on. There is a strategy being discussed right now between the U.S., the Chinese, the French, the U.K., the Arab League, the African Union, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. I don't think Canada participates officially, formally,

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. Your first question was about UNAMID. About 13,000 peacekeepers have been deployed, out of about 20,000. They still lack very critical equipment. For instance, there has been this debate about helicopters being sent to UNAMID to make it an effective protecti

Foreign Affairs committee  In the case of Darfur, some negotiations have already been held by the American special envoy, and by John Holmes, with a view to restoring some level of humanitarian assistance and to filling the gaps left by the departure of the 13 international NGOs. As well, there have been

Foreign Affairs committee  The priority must be political investment, meaning that we must demand that the international response to the crisis in Sudan be strategic. As we said earlier, we must have a political strategy with clear objectives, which has absolutely not been the case up to now. Our response

Foreign Affairs committee  I think people supported the CPA for one very simple reason, which was that it would lead to self-determination. Southerners are very much attached to the idea of self-determination, and I think that's the only thing they saw in the CPA. After six years they would have their refe