TONY Blair has abandoned plans to send British
troops to Sudan, in a move which marks a significant softening of the
government's previously hard-line approach to the crisis in the Darfur
region. While Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, was touring a refugee
camp in the region yesterday in advance of a meeting with the Sudanese
president, Downing Street was busy denying that it had ever considered
sending a British force to Darfur. The U-turn comes five days before
the United Nations deadline for Khartoum to disarm the Arab Janjaweed
militia, who have terrorised hundreds of thousands of people in the
region, or face economic and diplomatic sanctions. Mr Blair had
previously warned that he ruled out "absolutely nothing" and the head
of the British Army talked of sending a force of 5,000 soldiers. [more ]
U.S. Report on Violence in Sudan Finds a 'Pattern of Atrocities' [more ]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
See website for complete article licensing information.
]