Sudan hears criticism at the UNSC for expelling aid groups

March 20, 2009 (NEW YORK) — The Sudanese government said today it has no intention to reverse its decision to expel 13 relief organizations from Darfur.

“The decision of the government of Sudan is a legitimate sovereign decision which we will never reverse, and this should not be an issue for discussion” Sudanese deputy envoy at the UN Mohamed Abdel-Mannan told the UN Security Council (UNSC).

He also argued that the groups expelled represent only a small percentage of the NGOs that operate in Sudan.

The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir accused the aid groups of passing “false” information to the Hague based court and threatened to expel more if they exceed their mandate.

Rashid Kalikow, Director of the New York section of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in his briefing to the UNSC where he called on Khartoum to honor its agreements and its own laws.

“The ability to provide that aid has been seriously compromised by the decisions of the Government of …a new atmosphere of fear and uncertainty facing all aid organizations” Kalikow said.

The UN official also accused Sudanese authorities of seizing the assets of humanitarian groups and criticized president Bashir’s declaration that all foreign aid groups will leave within a year.

The US ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice blasted the Sudanese government and said Bashir is responsible for any death resulting from his decision on aid groups.

“President Bashir and his government are responsible for and must be held accountable for each and every death caused by these callous and calculated actions” Rice said.

“The Sudanese government made this decision and owns its consequences, which will not only cost lives but leave the government locked deeper in an isolation of its own making” she added.

Rice gave an example of Darfur Zam Zam camp where she said that resources have been stretched to the limit and is struggling to house more than 36,000 internally displaced people fleeing the recent fighting in south Darfur between rebels and the government

The US envoy urged the UNSC to act and press Sudan to reverse its decision.

“We sincerely hope that this body will come together as one, finally, to protect the people of Darfur… There are things upon which we can and will disagree. But surely saving the lives of desperate and innocent civilians being deliberately deprived of water, food, and medicine is not among them” she told the 15 member council.

Most UNSC members today including African nations Uganda and Burkina Faso criticized Sudan’s move and urged to Sudan to revoke the expulsion orders.

The Russian envoy criticized the council saying that today’s meeting was called for “in haste and without preparation” and called for dialogue with Sudan on the issue of NGO’s.

It was the US delegation that requsted the emergency by Rashid Khalikov.

The Chinese, Libyan and Vietnamese delegates focused in their speeches on the negative impact of the ICC arrest warrant on the situation in Sudan leading to the expulsion.

Libya said the UNSC ignored calls by the African Union and the Arab League to suspend Bashir’s indictment.

Both organizations warned that the ICC indictment undermines peace efforts in Sudan and called on the UNSC to invoke Article 16 of the Rome Statute which allows the council to suspend the ICC prosecutions in any case for a period of 12 months that can be renewed indefinitely.

But France’s UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert reaffirmed his country’s support to the ICC and its independence.

“To punish one’s own population is certainly not the right attitude,” he noted. “We believe that the fight against impunity cannot be separated from the quest for peace in Darfur as in the rest of the world” he said.

U.N. officials say that as many as 300,000 people have died in six years of conflict in Darfur between African rebels and the Arab-dominated government. Khartoum says 10,000 people have lost their lives.

(ST)