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10/29/06

BBC NEWS: Blogs - the new diplomacy? - Paul Reynolds

Jan Pronk exposes Sudanese Government atrocities on his blog
For the complete report from the BBC NEWS click on this link

Blogs - the new diplomacy? - Paul Reynolds

The attack on the government of Sudan by the UN's envoy Jan Pronk has perhaps pointed the way to a new kind of direct diplomacy - the diplomat's blog. Mr Pronk was expelled from Sudan after government anger at comments he made on his personal website. The government accused him of "psychological warfare" after he wrote that government forces had suffered two defeats in Darfur and that it had broken Security Council resolutions.
The former Dutch cabinet minister is no stranger to controversy but his use of the internet to publicise his views is new and daring in diplomacy, which traditionally favours discretion.

His blog was startlingly detailed, the kind of information that is normally sent back, encoded, only to national capitals. Sometimes in a one-on-one talk, a journalist can get something similar from a lively envoy, but to get it in the raw on the internet is an innovation.

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