De laatste keer dat ik over Darfur schreef, gebruikte ik een citaat uit "yes minister" dat nog steeds actueel is:
Bernard Woolley: What if the Prime Minister insists we help them?
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Then we follow the four-stage strategy.
Bernard Woolley: What’s that?
Sir Richard Wharton: Standard Foreign Office response in a time of crisis.
Sir Richard Wharton: In stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
Sir Richard Wharton: In stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there’s nothing we *can* do.
Sir Humphrey Appleby: Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it’s too late now.
Dat was drie jaar geleden. Van Pronk en de VN (en van de ambassade van Soedan) mocht het toen geen genocide genoemd worden. Iik denk dat we toen in fase drie zaten. We zitten nu in fase vier.
