UN envoy denies Sudan’s accusation
Feb 21, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The U.N.’s top envoy to Sudan Tuesday denied the government’s accusations that he had exceeded his mandate, telling reporters he was operating correctly and impartially.
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry summoned Jan Pronk, the U.N. secretary-general’s Special Representative, for a rebuke on Monday, saying his call for a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur infringed the country’s sovereignty. The ministry also complained that Pronk had blamed the government for delays in reaching peace in Darfur.
“I am not going to have a discussion with the government through the media,” Pronk told reporters at the weekly U.N. press briefing Tuesday. “I can only say the following: the UN is acting within its own mandate.
“We are not overstretching our mandate, and I have always been completely impartial,” Pronk said.
The ministry accused Pronk of “inciting” the African Union, which has 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, to transfer its mandate to the U.N. Pronk replied Tuesday he had “never incited the AU to hand over to the U.N.”
In January, Pronk had proposed transferring the AU’s mandate, which expires March 31, to a bigger U.N. force of 20,000 troops, arguing that many more peacekeepers were required to protect civilians in Sudan’s western region.
Sudan is opposed to the introduction of non-African forces in Darfur.
The AU’s Peace and Security Council has recommended that the AU peacekeeping force be transferred to the U.N., partly because funds are running out for the AU mission. But the AU Summit in Khartoum last month declined to endorse the proposal.
Several African leaders, such as Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, argue the Darfur operation should be “an African solution to an African problem.”
Pronk said the AU forces hadn’t managed to stop militia and rebels from killing civilians in Darfur, and that what we needed was advanced technology that could spot raiding parties approaching human settlements.
“I don’t think African countries have that technology,” he said.
The U.N. Mission in Sudan was set up to monitor and support the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended a 21-year civil war between north and south Sudan in January 2005. UNMIS also provides political and logistical support to the AU mission in Darfur.
An estimated 300,000 people have died, mainly of hunger and disease, and some 2 million people have been displaced since rebels from Darfur’s ethnic African population revolted three years ago, accusing the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum of discrimination and decades of neglect.
The government is widely alleged to have unleashed Arab militias, called Janjaweed, who carried out sweeping atrocities against ethnic African villagers. The government denies supporting the Janjaweed.
(ST/AP)