UNSC meeting failed to call for ceasefire in South Kordofan, Sudan says

August 9, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – A meeting held on Tuesday between members of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Sudan has failed to yield a resolution binding the country to ceasefire with rebels in South Kordofan State, a diplomat said.

Sudan has been battling fighters of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) since early June in the volatile region of Kordofan which borders the war-battered western region of Darfur and the newly established state in South Sudan.

Dafa’a Allah Al-Haj Ali, Sudan’s permanent envoy to the UN, said that the UNSC’s closed-door session held on Tuesday had received a briefing from the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos on the situation who spoke about the need of hundreds of refugees for humanitarian assistance as well as the importance of declaring a cessation of hostilities.

The Sudanese diplomat said that some countries led by the U.S and France had demanded that the UNSC issues a statement obliging the Sudanese government to ceasefire but the demand received objection from the representatives of China, Russia, India and Lebanon which argued that the information on atrocities committed in the region were sourced from non-governmental organization and thus unverifiable.

Ali further said that the meeting was concluded without issuing a resolution or statement. He, however, added that Washington, Paris and Berlin hinted at the possibility of returning to discuss the issue.

Sudan has been at loggerheads with the UNSC since the latter voted on 29 July to pass a resolution extending the mandate of the UN-AU Joint Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) for a year and instructing the mission to prioritize protection of civilian and facilitation of humanitarian assistance.

Khartoum severely criticized the resolution which, according to the country’s foreign minister Ali Karti, included many negative signals and false information. Karti said the resolution aims to “manipulate” the mission’s mandate and tarnish the image of the country.

The already-tense relations between Sudan and the world body further plummeted after the UN castigated Sudan for the death of three Ethiopian peacekeepers serving with the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei and who succumbed to their wounds awaiting medical evacuation delayed by Sudanese authorities for three hours.

The UNSC on Tuesday issued a statement condemning “in the strongest terms” acts of hostilities against peacekeepers in Sudan following the death on Friday of a UNAMID peacekeeper from Sierra Leone in an attack by identified gunmen in Darfur

(ST)