Pöttering says yes to EU troops in Sudan

European parliament president Hans-Gert Pöttering has said that he’s “very much in favour” of sending troops to Sudan to relieve the humanitarian crisis there.

The German MEP was speaking on Tuesday as he handed over the Sakharov prize for freedom of thought to Sudanese lawyer Salih Mahmoud Osman for his work with victims of human rights abuses in the Sudanese province of Darfur.

“I hope we come back to a deep consideration to send European troops there because what Salih Osman says is very convincing,” said Pöttering. “If European troops can be part of the solution…I am very much in favour.”

However, he added that the ultimate decision to send armed reinforcements to aid the African Union forces already on the ground rests with individual member states.

Pöttering made the comments after a plea from the Sudanese prizewinner to get involved.

“Europe has a role and a responsibility. It is genocide that is happening,” said Osman after he received his prize.

“Europe’s leaders have been talking tough,” he added, but there have been “no concrete steps to address the situation in a strong and targeted manner”.

Osman also said that the EU has a “great responsibility” to promote peace internationally and has the ability to lead the peace process in Darfur.

Estimates put the number of dead in the province as high as 600,000, with four million forcibly displaced and three million in camps, some across the border in Chad. Rape and sexual abuse are still used as weapons of war, said Osman, and NGOs that provide valuable aid to the camps are now being targeted as well.

“The entire region is now called a ‘no-go’ area and this is deliberately planned by the government to prevent the work of the NGOs and to make it impossible for the people of the camps to live there any more,” he explained.

According to Osman, Sudan has a “culture of total impunity” where people are in reality unprotected by the African Union forces sent there to help.

“The AU forces have been on the ground for three years, but unfortunately, they cannot protect the people of Darfur,” he said.

The forces have been paralysed by a series of curfews imposed by the Sudanese government. “How can troops that are subjected to a curfew protect the people of Sudan?” he asked.

“Atrocities and crimes occur in front of their eyes but they don’t take the steps to intervene. Victims and survivors lost trust in the African Union forces. We don’t want them any more.”

Osman echoed President Pöttering’s call for EU troops to go to Sudan, after alleging that financial aid only goes into the pockets of its corrupt government.

"You people from Europe and from the US and Canada are sending millions and billions of euros to help protect the people. Sometimes the money that is supposed to go as salaries to soldiers on the ground doesn’t go.

"The government of Sudan uses and manipulates this situation – it corrupts the AU force. It’s better that you send your own troops there."

In the day since the EU-African summit ended in Lisbon, much has been reported about the strained relationship between the two continents. Osman says he was “disappointed” at the outcome of the summit because of the lack of focus on Darfur.

“War crimes and the humanitarian dimension deserve a separate agenda,” he added, criticising the fact that Sudan was only discussed in the context of a security issue.

Osman warned that ethnic cleansing is about to happen in Darfur, urging the EU to act sooner rather than later.

“It will be too late if you wait until the number [killed] increases to 800,000 to call it genocide,” he cautioned.

“The international community has a responsibility to protect us.”

Osman is a lawyer working with the Sudan organisation against torture, and provides legal aid to victims of human rights abuses.

He is working to record a list of alleged war crimes in Darfur and is a member of the national parliament of Sudan. In 2004 he was arrested and held without charge for over seven months by the Sudanese government.

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