British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered to hold Darfur peace talks in the British capital.
His office declined to provide details or explain why the prime minister was making the formal offer now to use London as venue for talks to bring peace to Darfur, where fighting between the Sudanese government and a badly splintered rebel movement has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and pushed millions from their homes.
“This is a formal offer to hold these talks in London,” a spokesman said late on Saturday, speaking anonymously in line with office policy.
He declined to go into any detail or explain why the prime minister was making the offer now.
But news of the proposal was timed to coincide with Global Day for Darfur yesterday, which marks the fifth anniversary of the conflict in the Sudanese province.
Lawmakers, actors, authors and activists are marking the day with protests, grim advertisements and the delivery of a series of disturbing children’s drawings depicting the conflict to Brown’s official residence.
Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling and fellow authors of children’s books have signed an open letter calling for more support for children affected by the bloodshed.
“It is time to change the narrative,” the letter reads. “It is time to tell a different story. This April many children in Darfur will be reaching their fifth birthdays without ever having known peace. The world needs to wake up.”
Actors Matt Damon and Thandie Newton are participating in a television ad campaign, which shows them cutting and shattering toys in an effort to highlight the suffering of children in the country.
Yesterday a delegation of young survivors of the conflict were due to deliver to Brown’s 10 Downing Street office a series of drawings by Sudanese children, which show villages being raided and people being killed. British lawmakers, including Nick Clegg, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, were due to join a rally in central London. Protesters plan to gather outside the Sudanese embassy.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in the Darfur conflict and over 2 million are displaced from their homes, UN statistics show.
Fighting has raged in Darfur since 2003, when ethnic African tribesman took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Sudanese Arab-dominated government. Khartoum has been accused of unleashing the janjaweed militia to commit atrocities against ethnic African communities in the fight with rebel groups.
Protests were scheduled to take place in about 30 countries yesterday, said Crisis Action, a humanitarian charity. It called for an immediate deployment of more peacekeeping troops to the region.
In a statement released yesterday, Brown backed the demand, saying he was frustrated by the “appalling situation and the slow progress.”
He called for faster deployment of international peacekeepers to Darfur and said he would be working with the US, the UN and African leaders in the coming week to restart the peace process.
“Five years is more than enough for anyone to have to live with the sort of suffering that the people of Darfur have had to endure,” Brown said.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) is set to issue sea and land warnings for Tropical Storm Krathon as projections showed that the tropical storm could strengthen into a typhoon as it approaches Taiwan proper, the CWA said yesterday. The sea warning is scheduled to take effect this morning and the land warning this evening, it said. The storm formed yesterday morning and in the evening reached a point 620 nautical miles (1,148km) southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, moving west-southwest at 4 kph as it strengthened, the CWA said. Its radius measured between 220km and 250km, it added. Krathon is projected