UN envoy visits Darfur to urge support for peace deal
May 20, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — A special U.N. envoy to Sudan wrapped up a visit to Darfur to urge people there to support the new peace agreement as refugees demanded more protection against bands of marauders and additional food relief, the U.N. said Saturday.
<>doc1012|rightSpecial Representative of the Secretary-General in Sudan Jan Pronk made his three-day visit as splinter rebel groups continue to withhold support for the Darfur Peace Agreement signed May 5 by the Sudanese government and the two main rebel factions.
Pronk was back in Khartoum Saturday after intensive discussions on the DPA with tribal and community leaders and refugees displaced by the conflict that has killed nearly 200,000 people and made homeless 2.5 million since 2003.
Some of the rebels who rejected the peace accord enjoy strong support in the refugee camps of Darfur, a vast, arid region in western Sudan.
The African Union has demanded that any rebel groups still holding out on the peace deal sign it by May 31. A splinter faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement have resisted pressure to join.
“To achieve peace and security for your people, regain your rights, get your fair share of power, receive compensation and attain reconstruction, you must accept and support the peace agreement,” Pronk told displaced Darfurians in a makeshift camp in Mournei, according to a statement the U.N. mission in Sudan e-mailed to The Associated Press.
People displaced by the conflict asked for protection by U.N. peacekeeping forces against Janjaweed attacks and for more food rations and other relief supplies. Pronk, in his meetings with the refugees, highlighted the Sudanese government’s responsibility, noting the DPA stipulates that within 37 days of signing it the government must come up with a plan to disarm the Arab militia known as Janjaweed.
Meanwhile, Pronk said that the international community was preparing to boost the resources of the African Union’s protection force deployed in Darfur. He emphasized, however, that the additional support would be a transitional measure ahead of the deployment of U.N. peacekeeping forces.
Last week, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution to speed up planning for a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur. In the resolution, the council demanded that an assessment team go to Sudan within a week to prepare for the U.N. to take control an African Union-led peacekeeping mission now in Darfur.
Sudan’s government had blocked the team but recently signaled it would lift its opposition because of the peace deal. The resolution came a day after the African Union agreed to transfer authority for its 7,300-strong peacekeeping force in Darfur to the U.N. by the end of September or earlier if the U.N. is ready.
(ST/AP)