This week on the Foreign Office Global Conversations blog
Sudan, Libya and Refugees were amongst the topics discussed by Foreign Office bloggers.
Foreign Secretary William Hague published a video blog discussing the Arab Spring and what political freedom could mean for the people of the region.
In Sudan Alastair McPhail from the British Consul General in Juba remarked that “With less than one month to go until independence for Southern Sudan, the people of Sudan on both sides of the lines are losing family and friends to senseless violence.”
Meanwhile in Khartoum, Ambassador to Sudan Nicholas Kay reacted to the escalating violence saying that “Reports mount of civilians being killed by one side or another on the basis of their political affiliation or ethnic origin. The accuracy and extent of such incidents is still unclear. But nobody should be in any doubt about the universal abhorrence such acts evoke. If reports prove to be true, then those responsible will need to be brought to account. Justice will have its day.”
The new British Ambassador to Egypt James Watt, previously Ambassador to Jordan, shifted his blogging focus with a new blog post called “Arriving in revolutionary Cairo”.
Anticapating World Refugee Day on Monday 20th June Amelia Bate, Digital Communications Manager wrote a blog post ‘One refugee without hope is too many’. She stressed the importance of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees saying that “given recent events in Libya, Cote d’Ivoire, Syria and Sudan alone, it’s clear to me that the 1951 Convention is just as relevant as it was when it was agreed 60 years ago - and the role of international agencies, NGOs and local volunteer organisations just as vital, not least in providing that lifeline of hope.”
In Japan Tom Burn, Head of the Media and Communications explores the phenomenon that is the ‘Quakebook’.