UN envoy says urging donors to fulfil commitments towards Sudan

Jan 23, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Representative of the UN’s secretary-general for Sudan, Jan Pronk, said that the UN is working very hard to urge the donors to fulfil their commitments towards the Sudan.

He revealed an international plan of 1.5bn US dollars to support Sudan in the year 2006.

In an interview with the official SUNA news agency on the sidelines of the AU sixth summit in Khartoum, Pronk said that the response of the donors is very slow in the present time, a matter which poses one of the UN concerns.

Meanwhile, Pronk belittled the importance of the unification of Darfur the rebel groups, saying that they united and split in a number of times without any progress, because what is important is their presence and seriousness in Abuja negotiations if they really care for the interests of the people of Darfur.

Pronk said he is “quite disappointed” because the commitment to bring about peace by the end of December 2005 was not met, hoping that the AU will take the initiative to set a deadline for the achievement of peace in Darfur by the end of the coming February so that the rebel movements, whether united or not, go to the negotiations with one aim that is to achieve peace.

Commenting on a recent statement attributed to the UN secretary-general on the transformation of the African Mission in Sudan (AMIS), he said that this proposal to transform the AMIS into AU-UN mission was not given by Kofi Annan.

Pronk explained that the AMIS is not faced by lack of fund only, but also by the lack of training, weapons, self-defence equipment and helicopters. The representative of the UN secretary-general revealed existence of preparations with the chairman of the AU Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, to provide funding for the Amis for the next couple of months.

Pronk said that the big problem is that the AU gets funds for only two or three months, which is not enough to organize the AMIS for a longer term.

(ST)