Britain slams expulsion of UN envoy from Sudan
Oct 22, 2006 (LONDON) — Britain government on Sunday expressed condemnation of Sudan’s request for United Nations envoy Jan Pronk to leave the country, describing the step as “counter-productive”.
Lord Triesman, FCO Minister with responsibility for Africa, today condemned the announcement by the Government of Sudan that they were expelling the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative to the country.
He said “The British Government condemns the decision to expel the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative to Sudan. This step is counter-productive and will contribute nothing to solving the problems of Sudan. I call upon the Government of Sudan to reconsider its decision.”
The Sudanese government Sunday ordered the chief U.N. envoy to leave the country within three days after he wrote that the Sudanese army had suffered serious losses in fighting with rebels in northern Darfur.
Pronk said in a press statement issued in Khartoum that the Sudanese foreign ministry informed him that his “mission as Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the Sudan terminated” and that he is “requested to leave the territory of the Republic of the Sudan within 72 hours effective 12:00 noon of Sunday 22 October 2006.
Sudan’s government has been at odds with Pronk over Western efforts to get Sudan to allow a U.N. force of 20,000 troops to take over peacekeeping in Darfur — a move President Omar al-Bashir has flatly rejected as a bid to restore colonial rule.
Tension between the government and Pronk escalated after he wrote in his personal Web blog this month that Sudanese army losses in recent fighting in northern Darfur “seem to have been very high.”
(ST)