Sudan rejects meeting with UN officials on Darfur

December 7, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — President al-Bashir would not meet special envoys of the UN Secretary General planed to meet him during Europe Africa Summit in Lisbon at the weekend, a Sudanese official said.

Presidential advisor, Mustafa Osman Ismail, denied that president Omer al-Bashir would meet two envoys sent by Ban Ki-Moon to discuss with him in Lisbon the obstacles to deploying a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force.

Ismail said the envoys can come directly to Khartoum and meet the concerned authorities, he also added that the UN Secretary General can contact le president or the minister of foreign affairs.

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, the head of UN delegation to this weekend’s African Union-European Union summit in Lisbon, and Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet were supposed to discuss divergences on Darfur peacekeeping mission with the Sudanese president.

Sudan and the UN diverge over the composition of the troops of the peacekeeping operation. Khartoum rejects explicitly inclusion of non African troops; exceptionally it accepts China and Pakistan. But the UN speaks about crucial need fro units from Thailand and Nepal.

The mission is short of one heavy and one medium transport unit, three military utility aviation units and one light helicopter unit, while an earlier pledge for one reconnaissance company has been withdrawn.

UNAMID is due to take over from the existing but under-resourced AU mission (known as AMIS) by the start of next month, but it lacks offers for crucial force units and the Sudanese Government has raised a series of objections and obstacles.

(ST)