Sudan: Peace Negotiations

Mr. Keith Simpson
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assistance his Department has provided to the Doha peace talks on Darfur; what recent steps he has taken to seek to secure progress in those talks; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Ivan Lewis
The UK strongly supports the African Union/UN political process for Darfur led by Joint Chief Mediator Bassole and welcomes also Qatar's important contribution. We have committed £1 million to support the process.

We welcomed the signing in Doha on 17 February 2009 of an initial agreement by the Government of Sudan and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). We have urged the parties to fully implement the commitments they made. We support the mediators' intention to engage other Darfur leaders and also civil society in further discussions.

The UK Special Representative for Sudan, together with his P5 and EU counterparts, reaffirmed their support for the Darfur political process in a meeting in Qatar on 27 May 2009. They jointly urged the Government of Sudan and JEM to show flexibility, stressed the need for input from all sectors of Darfuri society, and reiterated calls for all parties to urgently accept the invitation extended by the mediators.

We continue to maintain contact with the government of Sudan and other parties to the conflict to urge them to take concrete steps to find a just and lasting solution to the problems of Darfur.