Sudan’s Bashir orders foreign relief groups out within a year

March 16, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir stepped up his clampdown on foreign aid groups ordering that local relief organizations take over food distribution process in a year timeframe.

Bashir who was addressing a rally of army and police units said that he had ordered the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to transition the distribution of relief operations to Sudanese groups.

“After a year there will be no dealing with a foreign organization….We need to rid our country from spies” the Sudanese leader told the audience in the Sudanese capital.

“If they want to continue providing aid, they can just leave it at the airport and Sudanese NGO can distribute the relief” he added.

The Sudanese state minister for Humanitarian Affairs Ahmed Haroun said that they will “immediately” begin implementing Bashir’s orders.

Haroun said that the ministry has “technical, administrative and executive” steps it will undertake to proceed with the plan in a year time.

However the Sudanese official stressed that operating UN organizations will not be impacted.

Today’s announcement come following a decision by Khartoum to expel more than a dozen aid groups accusing them of collaborating with the International Criminal Court (ICC). But the aid workers dismissed the charge.

Earlier this month ICC judges issued an arrest warrant for Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

In New York the UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said he was seeking urgent clarification on Bashir’s remarks.

“If all the agencies were required to leave and not be able to operate, that would, we believe, have enormous ramifications for the welfare of people in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan” Holmes said.

“Obviously, the idea that we would simply hand over goods at the port to be distributed or monitored without our involvement is not one that would be acceptable to us” he added.

Bashir announced that donations made by these organizations could fill 100 percent of the needs left by the departing aid agencies, which have warned, by contrast, that the expulsions will have dire consequences for conflict-affected civilians in Darfur and other areas of North Sudan.

China blocked a French drafted presidential statement at the UN Security Council (UNSC) condemning Sudan for expelling the aid groups and calling on Khartoum to reverse its decision.

(ST)