UN, AU envoys meet Darfur Arab tribal leaders
March 27, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The UN Special Envoy for Darfur and his counterpart from the African Union held talks today with representatives of Darfur Arab tribes and leaders of civil society groups as part of ongoing efforts to revitalize the peace process in the troubed region.
Jan Eliasson and the AU’s Salim Ahmed Salim spoke with the Darfur representatives in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, where they have already met this week with senior Government ministers and Opposition leaders, the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) reported.
The mission said the civil society and Arab tribal leaders told the two envoys their views on how to attain a sustainable settlement of the Darfur problem, where Government forces and allied Janjaweed militias have fought rebel groups since they took up arms, partly in protest over the distribution of resources.
“The process to peace in Darfur has to be encouraged and strengthened, both by goodwill from the parties – the Government and the signatories and non-signatories – but it also has to grow from below,” Eliasson told a joint press conference today after the talks. “It has to be also a bottom-to-top process.
“And if there is to be a lasting solution to the Darfur problem, we know it has to have popular support among the people of Darfur and amongst the people in Sudan.”
Eliasson said that while he was encouraged by the positive reactions inside and outside Sudan about the prospects for mobilizing political will to solve the conflict, NGOs operating in the field reported continuing problems of harassment and bureaucracy.
“I can’t even imagine the chaotic situation that could arise if we had a breakdown of that huge humanitarian operation – 13,000 people working for a billion-dollar operation to help millions of people. It is the Darfurian people who will in the end pay the price.”
He also voiced concern over the increasing phenomenon of inter-tribal fighting in Darfur, a deeply impoverished region roughly the size of France on Sudan’s western flank.
On this trip, his second since becoming envoy, Eliasson also visited Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, as well as the Eritrean capital, Asmara, to discuss that country’s efforts to mediate a solution in Darfur, where more than 2 million people have been forced from their homes and become internally displaced or refugees in neighbouring Chad.
(UN/ST)