UNAMID stresses that coming day will be normal

March 4, 2009 (PARIS) – On the eve of the ICC decision over an arrest warrant request for the Sudanese president, the spokesman of the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) said that the 4th of March will be an ordinary day for UNAMID in Darfur.

While some observers have warned that the court decision could bring down retaliation against UNAMID and contested reports surfaced that the UNMIS peacekeepers were evacuating some staff and dependents, spokesman Noureddine Mezni emphasized that routine activities are planned.

“We will continue our daily activities, we will be present in the IDP Camps, we will reinforce our presence there since the core of our mandate is to protect the civilians in particular the IDPs” he told Sudan Tribune.

Mezni stressed that the political leadership of the Mission has been touring recently the three Darfur states “to engage the local governments, as Joint Special Representative Rodolphe Adada has done earlier at the central level to ensure that Sudan is committed to its role as a host of the Mission.”

He added, “The government has reassured UNAMID that it will do everything possible for the safety of its personnel and properties. It goes without saying that UNAMID mandate has nothing to do with ICC, which is an independent organ.”

UNAMID was set up by the Security Council to protect civilians in Darfur, where an estimated three million people have been forced from their homes since 2003. Some of these fled to eastern Chad, where there is a separate peacekeeping mission.

(ST)