Security Council failed to support me – UN’s Pronk
Dec 12, 2006 (AMSTERDAM) — The U.N. envoy expelled from Sudan after making remarks critical of the Sudanese army said Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council had failed to support him and that he feared the consequences.
Sudan’s government declared Jan Pronk persona non grata in October after he reported on his Internet blog that the Sudanese army had twice been defeated by rebels in Darfur and was mutinous. The Dutch-born diplomat went back to Sudan last week to collect his belongings and hand the mission over to his deputy, Taye-Brook Zerihoun.
“I think that I didn’t get sufficient support from the side of the Security Council,” Pronk told the Netherlands’ state broadcaster NOS on Tuesday, in his first interview since returning from Sudan.
“My worry is that the (Sudanese) government thinks now that it can get away with anything,” he said.
Pronk has long been critical of Khartoum’s role in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur province, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since 2003.
He wrote in a Nov. 27 Internet posting: “The (Sudanese) government is still violating peace and cease-fire agreements, as well as principles, norms and values of the U.N.”
His abrupt departure marked the first time in years that a high ranking U.N. official was expelled from a diplomatic mission. Although Pronk enjoyed immunity as a U.N. representative, the world body avoided characterizing his dismissal as an expulsion by saying it had recalled him for consultation — a decision later made permanent.
“If they (the Sudanese government) have gotten away with decapitating a (U.N.) mission without consequences, they’ll go further,” Pronk told the NOS. “We’re seeing that happen already. And I have large worries about the possibilities left for the U.N. in that case.”
Pronk had repeatedly denounced the Sudanese government for continuing to arm militias known as the janjaweed. Since his expulsion, janjaweed have stepped up attacks on villages in Darfur, killing dozens of people, international observers say. In one raid, janjaweed forced children into a thatched hut, then set it ablaze, killing parents who tried to rescue the children, according to rebel reports.
The government has refused for weeks to grant permits for foreign journalists to visit the region.
The U.N. has 10,000 peacekeepers monitoring the end of a civil war in southern Sudan, but Khartoum has so far rejected proposals for a U.N. peacekeeping deployment in the western region of Darfur.
An ill-equipped and underfunded African Union force of 7,000 is serving in Darfur, a vast province.
Current discussions between the U.N. and Khartoum focus on a possible compromise to allow more peacekeepers into Darfur within a joint force of 27,000 that would blend AU forces and U.N. troops.
(AP)