Sudan lifts ban on UN mission in Darfur – UN
June 26, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Sudan has lifted a ban it imposed on Sunday on a U.N. mission working in the violent western Darfur region, a U.N. spokesman said on Monday.
“The Sudanese Government decided, effective today, to reverse its decision to suspend U.N. Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) activities in Darfur,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The United Nations coordinates one of the world’s largest aid operations in Darfur and monitors the health, malnutrition and human rights situation in a region the size of France.
Sudan suspended the U.N. operations, excluding the work of the World Food Program and the U.N. Children’s Fund, because it said the world body used a helicopter to move Suleiman Adam Jamous, a rebel leader who opposes a recent peace deal.
Dujarric said that Taye Zerihoiun, the deputy special U.N. envoy for Sudan, had told Mutrif Siddiq, the Sudanese undersecretary for foreign affairs, that the mission was investigating the incident.
Dujarric and other U.N. spokesmen declined to comment on whether the United Nations had moved Jamous in a helicopter.
UNMIS also has a peacekeeping operation in southern Sudan and an office in Darfur.
After three years of revolt in Sudan’s remote west, tens of thousands have been killed and 2.5 million forced into camps, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises.
In recent months U.N. relations with the Islamist-dominated government has been strained as Khartoum fiercely resisted international pressure for a U.N. takeover of the struggling African Union mission monitoring a shaky truce in Darfur.
Only one of three rebel factions negotiating in the Nigerian capital Abuja signed the African Union-mediated deal and tens of thousands in Darfur have demonstrated, at times violently, against it.
They say it does not meet their demands for compensation for war victims or enough political posts and the rebels want to monitor the disarmament of pro-government militias, known locally as Janjaweed, accused of killings, rape and ethnic cleansing of non-Arab tribes.
Jamous was the respected humanitarian coordinator for the main rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) before it split in November last year. He was the main contact for the more than 14,000 aid workers in the region.
“He was picked up by the U.N. helicopter between el-Fasher and Musbat,” Ibrahim said, referring to areas in North Darfur.
“The authorities were not consulted, no permission was asked for and it was clear negligence,” he said, adding it was a “flagrant violation” of the sovereignty of Sudan.
The leader of the SLA faction who signed the deal, Minni Arcua Minnawi, had imprisoned Jamous for his opposition to the deal, rights groups and other rebel leaders said.
U.N. officials and other rights groups had been involved in securing his release.
(Reuters)