AU, UN enovys say security and aid needed in Darfur before talks
Feb 15, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The AU and UN envoys for Darfur stressed the need of security and delivery of humanitarian aid to the Darfur displaced. They said de-escalation of the violence must be prior to the engagement of the political process.
Below is a near verbatim transcript of the opening remarks of UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy Jan Eliasson for Darfur and African Union Special Envoy for Darfur Salim Ahmed Salim made during the Joint Press Conference they held on 15 February 2007 at UNMIS Press Briefing Room, Ramsis Building – Khartoum.
Spokesperson Radhia: Good evening everyone and thank you very much for coming to this press conference that is held jointly by Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim the Special Envoy of the African Union for Darfur and Mr. Jan Eliasson the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Darfur as well. They are going to be briefing you on the joint mission which they have been undertaking in Sudan – Khartoum and Darfur. They have just arrived from Darfur.
Without further ado, I will give the floor to Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim who will be giving you his introductory remarks and will be followed by Mr. Jan Eliasson with his remarks as well.
Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim …
AU Special Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim: Ladies and gentlemen, our joint mission has come about as a result of a decision originally taken at the meeting in Addis Ababa between the leadership of the UN and the leadership of the African Union, with the full participation of the members of the Security Council, a number of countries and institutions including the League of Arab States, and so on.
In that meeting which was co-chaired by Kofi Annan and Alpha Oumar Konar, a number of things were agreed upon. One of the areas of agreement was the re-energizing of the political process in order to arrive to a political settlement to the conflict in Darfur. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had appointed a good friend, Mr. Jan Eliasson here, as a Special Envoy [for Dafur]. This appointment was confirmed by the new Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon. I was appointed by Chairman Konare as Special Envoy of the African Union.
This is our first mission together. We came here [to the press conference] after we had very interesting discussions in the last three days. We started here on Monday. We met with government officials here in Khartoum, we met literally with all the signatories of the DPA, and then we went to Darfur and spent the whole of yesterday and part of today in Darfur. We had a meeting with AMIS in Darfur. We also met with the field commanders [of DPA NON-signatories] somewhere under a tree – they call it a “peace tree” – in northern Darfur. We also met with representatives of IDPs and the representatives of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). We met also with the tribal chiefs – some of them at least.
Our message throughout has been: One: we will do our utmost to re-engage the political process for the purpose of ensuring that there is an implementation of the existing agreement.
Secondly; bearing in mind the reservations [about the DPA], sometimes opposition to [the DPA], we will look into how we can take care of these reservations; how to overcome some of those difficulties, in order to propel the peace process forward.
We have come also at a time where there is a serious humanitarian concern as far as the situation of the operations of the humanitarian agencies that are operating in Darfur is concrned.
Throughout our visit, both in our discussions with the government leaders, our discussions with other signatories and in our discussions with the non-signatories, we have made it clear that this issue is oneof the issues of primary concern for us; emphasizing to all stakeholders the importance of creating the necessary conditions for the humanitarian organizations to be able to operate in a manner which will be to the benefit of the people of Darfur but more particularly, to the benefit of people in the IDP camps.
We have stressed the importance of creating an enabling environment for the negotiations to take place. This enabling environment, inter alia, presupposes the de-escalation of the violence – the reduction of violence – and preferably the cessation of hostilities. We have made this point to all concerned, and I would like to say that thus far we have been encouraged by the initial reaction of everybody we met on this issue – the importance of de-escalation of violence – and also by the assurances by all the other parties that they will do the utmost to facilitate the operations of the humanitarian organizations.
But essentially our work is political. Our role is to create conditions for the resumption of dialogue between all the parties. Clearly we have not been able to meet all the parties yet. We have tried to focus on meeting all parties who are in Darfur and who are in Sudan. To that extent, we have succeeded. But there are others who we have not been able to meet and it is our intention, as part of our efforts, to make sure to reach out and meet all the other stakeholders, all the non-signatories.
We have been emphasizing that the most important thing to focus on is: what are those issues which are of particular concern to those who have not been able to come on board the peace process? And you know, when we go back to the history of the Abuja process, we had issues which were centrally discussed: the question of power-sharing, wealth sharing and the question of security arrangements. In our discussions whether with those who are signatories or with those who are opposed to the DPA, they made it very clear that they think that there are shortcomings and they highlighted a number of issues. For example the question of security and stability was highlighted everywhere we went. Another issue highlighted was the question of compensation – especially the measures to be taken to address the legitimate concerns of the IDPs, measures to be taken to deal with the issue of refugees and also the whole question of development and reconstruction was emphasized.
As I said before, this is just a first effort. Maybe I should also mention something else: we were encouraged by the positive attitude of everyone we have met showing particular appreciation that we were working as a joint team. The idea that the African Union and the UN are working together with one objective on this issue was highly appreciated and highlighted wherever we went, from the government side and also by the other stakeholders like, for example, the other signatories and the non-signatories. And I think this is important. I hope it marks the beginning of a continuation of a close working relationship between the UN and the African Union especially at a time when we are really faced with the challenge that confronts us in Darfur.
The final observation is that we really understand and recognize that time is of the essence; that we have to move with deliberate speed in our efforts. But we have to do so also through due deliberations. We have got to consult everybody, we have got to meet with everybody, we have got to know the preoccupations of everybody. We can not come with pre-fabricated solutions and say here we are and we think we have a solution to the crisis in Darfur. It is important to involve all the stakeholders and it is our intention to do so now because, as we hold this press conference today, we are continuing with our meetings; we will have more meetings tomorrow and will have more meetings on Saturday, and after that we will decide also on a future course of action.
This is a joint press briefing and I would, of course, request my friend Jan Eliasson to say something. Thank you.
Eliasson: Ladies and gentlemen, I am very proud to be at the side of Salim Ahmed Salim, a greatly respected African leader. And I think you should see the presence of a Special Envoy from the African Union and from the UN as a sign of the need for political mobilization; the need for mobilization of the political will, to finally bring this tragic conflict to an end. Four years of suffering is enough and we need now to send the signal and get concrete results of the negotiations process that we both are embarking in.
The Secretary-General gives the Darfur crisis the highest priority. He called me the first day when he took office [to discuss the Darfur situation]. He is personally deeply engaged [in the issue of Darfur]. The whole UN membership – 192 member States of the UN – follow this conflict closely and, of course most particularly, the 53 African members. We all are in this together. The Security Council follows this issue in particular very closely.
The impressions we had from the meetings held by the two Envoys during their joint mission] have been described very eloquently by my dear friend Salim. I think it is evident after these rounds of talks that we had and which had been very thorough – for instance the discussions with Dr. Khalifa [Presidential Advisor] lasted three hours and were very detailed – that there is an acknowledgment that there is simply no military solution to the Darfur crisis. That’s a starting point for the way forward and that is the political road.
We think that we are seeing now an engagement from those we have talked to enter in talks aiming at launching negotiations between the government and the different movements. We have expectations that once this political process starts – and it starts, I hope, now – there should and could be visible signs of a reduction in violence and improvement of the situation on the ground. This means that we want to connect the political talks we are embarking in with real progress on the ground. That is our expectation and that’s what we consider a good way for the parties to prove that this is a serious venture, a serious enterprise, because as Dr. Salim just said, the situation is very serious. Four years of conflict of this nature is an enormous strain on the people. We have met the IDPs, the tribal leaders; we have met people who really represent those who take the beating. The humanitarian workers are exhausted. We heard from them clear expressions of fatigue, of frustration at the situation. And this is an enormous operation of 1 billion dollars a year with 13,000 humanitarian workers. But what they are actually doing is putting bandages over infected wounds. We would like and the world community would also like to use this money for health clinics, for education of the children, for irrigation projects, for the development of this region.
So there is an element of urgency and we think this is an opportunity that should ceased by all concerned, particularly the parties to the conflict. This is a Sudanese problem and in the end it will have to be the people of Sudan and their representatives that will have to solve it. But we will do our utmost to bring this process about and we hope also that all actors, those who follow these developments very closely, those who are engaged in the region will cooperate with us. We have indications that this is the case; that those countries that are actively involved [in the Darfur issue]– like Eritrea – would like to work with us.
So we are on to an important process. We would need all the support we can get. But we hope that all concerned would realize that this opportunity is in their interest and make good use of it. A missed opportunity, again on Darfur – not building on what we have achieved and not taking the chance now to finally get this conflict behind us – will be a serious mistake. We don’t want to end up with such a mistake.
Thank you very much.
(ST)