Sudan says aid groups can move without restriction in Darfur
May 16, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan will allow all NGOs and the press to circulate without restriction in all the states of Sudan’s Darfur region, a Sudanese minister announced Tuesday.
The Government has granted all charity organizations and all media organs the right to access to all areas inside the three states of Darfur for a period of three months that would be evaluated and assessed, the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, Costa Manyebi, said in the meeting with the foreign organizations operating in the Sudan.
The minister pointed out in the meeting he held with the International NGOs leaders to exchange views on issues of interest, pointed out that under the present changes brought by the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) the government would open a new page for rallying all efforts and all assistance needed for forwarding assistance to the needy and also to better the provision of services and boosting peace in the region.
U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland, who visited Darfur last week after local officials initially refused him access, urged the government to lift restrictions on 14,000 aid workers trying to help more than 3 million people.
Aid workers have complained of harassment, travel restrictions and bureaucratic procedures obstructing their work in Darfur. Some who reported the violence they were seeing, such as Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), have been threatened with eviction.
He said against this government permission for access to the Darfur areas without restrictions, the NGOS have to take into consideration the government concerns regarding the supervisory role and the respect of the local administrations where the organizations would be operating.
The minister proposed the formation of a joint work team that would include the local national parties as well as the relevant voluntary organizations to set up mechanism and plans for the reactivation of humanitarian action in the region and for the implementation of the DPA.
He said this mechanism would work to make the peace durable, sell the DPA for all concerned sectors of the Darfur society, contain the effects of war in the region and convince the movements that have not yet signed the peace agreement to join the peace process. The minister confirmed that the government pays attention to the criticism levelled against the voluntary work law that has been recently passed by the National Assembly.
Manyebi said this law has now become a reality but that it has to be implemented through a number of regulations and bills and that at that stage that criticism could be taken into account.
The government signed a peace deal with one rebel faction in the Nigerian capital Abuja earlier this month, but two other factions have refused to sign, saying the accord does not give Darfur a fair deal.
Thousands of Darfuris squatting in miserable camps in Darfur during the three years of rape, looting and killing are demonstrating angrily and at times violently against the deal.
(ST)