UN role will be limited to facilitating intra-Sudanese dialogue: Perthes
January 10, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – The UN initiative will be limited to holding indirect and individual consultations with the Sudanese stakeholders paving the way for a Sudanese-led process, said UN envoy Volker Perthes, on Monday.
On Saturday, Perthes announced the launch of a UN-facilitated intra-Sudanese political process to reach a solution ending the current stalemate paving the way for the completion of the transition’s tasks and general elections.
Speaking to the press on Monday to explain the process, he said their role in the two-phase process would be to narrow the gaps and facilitate the discussions but they have no roadmap to propose.
“In the first phase of these consultations, there will be individual meetings with Sudanese stakeholders to get their views on the relevant issues, and then an indirect agenda will emerge from these consultations,” Volker said at a press conference on Monday.
Volker further denied reports that the United Nations intended to put forward a four-point plan. He stressed that the United Nations would not submit any political document, draft agreement or proposals to resolve the political crisis, as its role was limited to facilitating the political process only.
“These are Sudanese issues, the Sudanese must agree on them, we are facilitating consultations and we will not present a project,” he stressed.
In response to a question, Volker reiterated that the role of the United Nations was limited to facilitating negotiations only. Also, he took the opportunity to develop the second phase.
He said they would ask participants to set priorities that should be negotiated. Once an agreement emerges on a number of issues then they would invite the parties to move on to a new phase that might be the round table previously proposed by the former Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, as he said
“But our role will be limited to providing technical facilities only. There are Sudanese figures who can broker this dialogue and we will go back after providing the necessary facilities,” he added.
Volker is expected to brief the UN Security Council next Wednesday on the Sudanese crisis after the coup of October 25, 2021.
The UNITAMS head said the military did not object to the UN initiative. Also, the Resistance Committees and a faction of the Sudanese professionals Association did not refuse to consult with the United Nations but refused to join a negotiating table with the military.
The Resistance Committees, regrouping youth groups in residential neighbourhoods, organized four anti-coup protests during the past ten days, and plan for further demonstrations in the coming weeks.
Their flat organizational structures give them large autonomy and flexibility to continue the mass mobilization despite the brutal repression and arrest of identified leaders.
However, it is difficult for mediators or facilitators to bring them to take a joint position outside the shared three no’s: no negotiation, no partnership and no compromise with the military component.
Without referring to the rejection of the SPA of the consultations, Perthes stressed during his press conference that this initiative was at the heart of the UNITAMS mandate.
He called for an immediate end to the use of excessive violence against demonstrators, and an investigation into the killing and grave human rights committed against protesters.
(ST)