Issues must be settled before UN rights team enters – Sudan
Feb 11, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan said Sunday that several issues still needed to be settled before it will allow a U.N. human rights, fact-finding mission to visit the war-torn Darfur region.
The six-member team, which was established by the U.N. Human Rights Council, wants to visit Sudan to investigate the reported rape and killings of civilians and the destruction of villages in the western Sudan region.
On Friday, the head of the mission, Nobel laureate and U.S. anti-landmine campaigner Jody Williams said she had expected the Khartoum government to provide the travel clearance in the coming days.
But on Sunday, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadeq said the mission would only be allowed to enter Sudan after it resolves outstanding issues with Khartoum.
“We have consultations going on a number of issues, and when we reach consent on them, the delegation will come to the Sudan. But up to now we have not,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadeq. He declined to provide more details.
Khartoum press had earlier reported that the government refused to give the delegation visas and said it had some objections to some of the members of the delegation.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and some 2.5 million people have fled their homes since violence broke out in the region between government-backed janjaweed militia and ethnic African groups in 2003.
A 7,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force has been trying to quell the ongoing violence in the region, but the force is underfunded and ill-equipped. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for 22,000 U.N. peacekeepers to replace the A.U. force in Darfur. But he also has sent mixed signals about a joint U.N.-A.U. force.
The U.N. fact-finding mission also has been plagued by difficulties since it was agreed on at an emergency session of the 47-nation rights council in December.
The mandate for the visit was agreed by Western diplomats on one side and Arab and African diplomats on the other, but the council’s resolution ultimately refrained from criticizing the Sudanese government’s involvement in rights abuses and only expressed concern regarding the seriousness of the Darfur situation.
(AP)