Slovenia continues with efforts to release Darfur envoy

Aug 7, 2006 (LJUBLJANA/KHARTOUM) — The Slovene Foreign Ministry on
Monday assured that it is doing everything in its power to secure the
release of Tomo Kriznar, President Janez Drnovsek’s special envoy to the western Sudanese province of Darfur.

The ministry has been cooperating with the German embassy in Khartoum which represents the current EU presiding country Finland in Sudan., the Slovene news agency reported.

The embassy provided Kriznar with a lawyer. Drnovsek’s envoy is also to be visited in prison by the German ambassador to Sudan on Tuesday or
Wednesday.

As the ministry furthermore explained, it again called on the Sudanese
Foreign Ministry last week to speed up the procedure.

The trial against Kriznar, who was arrested on 20 July for lacking a valid
visa for Sudan and is also accused of spying, is to resume on Tuesday or
Wednesday in the town of El Fashir in the west of Sudan.

According to today’s edition of the daily Dnevnik, the evidence against
Kriznar includes photos of an alleged official government document given to him by Darfur rebels.

According to the daily, the document contains orders by the Sudanese
authorities to kill everyone who would set out to unearth the mass graves in Darfur, even UN workers.

At the beginning of August, Kriznar admitted that he entered Darfur
without a valid visa as he was denied one by the Sudanese embassy in
Vienna. He, however, refused all allegations about being a spy.

He believes the Sudanese authorities are also aware that he is not a spy, yet, they are still trying to present him as such, the daily also writes.

(ST)