Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The AMIS supply is insufficient, as I saw for myself when I travelled to El Fasher, one of the major towns in Darfur. I met with the commanders of the AMIS and saw that it was too small a force for too large an area. The area in question is approximately one and half times the size of France. This was one reason I very strongly urged our EU counterparts to use all our influence, even if it meant a plan B. In conjunction with the Danish Foreign Minister, I stated that we should consider other options against the Sudanese Government.

Thankfully, events have moved on since then as the UN, and Kofi Annan in particular, has been instrumental in at least getting an acknowledgement and understanding from President al-Bashir with regard to the three-phased approach. The UN is already looking for personnel from various countries and a number of nations have indicated they would be willing to participate in the second phase, provided they are allowed in.

It is not an easy issue with which to deal. I saw for myself a demand by the international community to send in the UN, but it is not that simple. Out on the ground one can see why it is not as easy as sending in troops from Ireland or anywhere else in the world. There is incredible suspicion there not just from the Sudanese Government, but also from a broad spectrum of people, that this is in some way an effort by the international community — specifically some countries — to destabilise the Sudanese Government.

One reason I stopped in Egypt for six hours on my recent visit was as a result of discussions I had here with President Mubarak and Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit when they visited Dublin. I got the general feeling from President Mubarak in particular that this issue needed to be handled sensitively and in such a way that rather than the issue being forced and not getting the desired result with the Sudanese Government, it was better to discuss it with like-minded countries who understand the psyche of the Sudanese Government. The Egyptian view was confirmed by a number of countries, including South Africa, representatives of which I spoke to in New York in September.

The process is moving ever so slowly but it is going in the right direction. Before I travelled I spoke to Jan Eliasson, a good friend of Ireland who is the former Swedish Foreign Minister and current special representative of the UN Secretary General. He appreciated our strong support on the issue and our strong articulation of the difficulties in Darfur. He stated that his job and that of the special envoy of the EU was to try to bring the non-signatories of the peace agreement into the fold, which might require some additional assistance from the international community. As long as those parties are outside the deal, it would appear that the violence will continue.

That may even mean the international community will have to put money on a plate in order to deal with the issue of compensation, a significant matter for those who have been displaced.

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