Finnish MP leaves for Sudan as UN-mandated consultant

Finnish MP leaves for Sudan as UN-mandated consultant
BBC Monitoring Service – United Kingdom
Published: May 31, 2007

Text of report by Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat website on 30 May

[Report by Anu Nousiainen: “Haavisto to Darfur at UN Request”]

Member of Parliament Pekka Haavisto (Green League) is leaving for Sudan at the request of the United Nations to prepare the ground for new peace talks between the Sudanese Government and Darfur insurgents.

UN Under-Secretary General Jean-Marie Guehenno and Jan Eliasson, special representative of the UN Secretary General, asked Haavisto to take a two-week trip to negotiate in Sudan and its neighbouring countries.

During the trip Haavisto plans to meet with representatives of both the Sudanese Government in Khartoum and commanders of the various insurgent groups in Darfur and across the border in Chad.

In Darfur the insurgents are hiding from government troops in places in the desert that are difficult to reach and where Haavisto has to go by helicopter.

MP Haavisto takes the trip as some kind of UN-mandated consultant or “special adviser.” His work as the EU’s special representative in Sudan, which lasted for slightly less than two years, ended at the end of April.

In that post, Haavisto travelled extensively in Sudan and its neighbouring countries. He also built close relations to all parties in the conflict.

Haavisto was a participant in the peace talks between the Darfur insurgents and the Sudanese Government in 2005 and 2006.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat website, Helsinki, in Finnish 30 May 07