Political relations

Bernard Kouchner received, on 6 October 2008, a delegation headed by Nafie Ali Nafie, an adviser to the Sudanese head of state.

During their meeting, he expressed France’s extremely deep concern over the deterioration in the situation in Darfur, notably the continuation of violence. He asked the Sudanese authorities to bring a halt to the operations they have been carrying out for several weeks.

He reiterated the call for a radical and immediate change in policy on the part of the Sudanese authorities:

  first, by cooperating with the International Criminal Court to implement the decisions already taken with respect to Mr. Haroun and Mr. Kushayb
  and second, by taking all necessary measures to move toward a resolution of the Darfur crisis, including a cessation of hostilities, access of humanitarian workers to civilian populations, the unrestricted deployment of UNAMID, the search for a political solution and normalization of relations with Chad.

The minister emphasized that France is demanding action on all of these issues.

Discussions with the delegation were not aimed at entering into negotiations with the Sudanese authorities, but to remind them what the international community expects of them. The Sudanese delegation gave no details on Mr. Haroun’s future within the government of Sudan.