UN wants dialogue with Sudan on Darfur humanitarian situation

March 22, 2009 (UNITED NATIONS) — A top United Nations humanitarian official said they want to engage dialogue with Sudanese government over the humanitarian situation in the war torn region of Darfur.

“We want to engage in transparent and productive dialogue with the Government based on these laws and agreements,” Rashid Khalikov, Director of the New York section of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the Security Council last Friday.

Sudan expelled 13 aid groups from the country, a decision that affects the UN most important humanitarian operation in the world. Khartoum alleged that the foreign NGOs were cooperating with the International Criminal Court on its investigations on Darfur crimes. But the ICC prosecutor denied the accusations.

Khalikov underscored that on 15 March, Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir spoke of the possible departure of all foreign humanitarian organizations in Sudan in a year”s time, even if the violence and displacement in Darfur continues.

The official urged the Government to end those practices, to minimize its rhetoric against foreigners and to ensure the safety and security of all UN and associated staff. He also called on armed groups in Darfur to take active steps to ensure the safety of UN and NGO staff.

“We must find a way to decrease tensions and ensure the timely and sustainable provision of protection and humanitarian assistance, based on the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, and impartiality,” he said.

The UN official stressed that, the ability to provide the humanitarian aid has been seriously compromised by the decisions of the Government Sudan, he added, citing a new “atmosphere of fear and uncertainty facing all aid organizations.”

He said the expulsion of the 13 aid groups had been followed by an increase in violence against the UN-African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and aid groups, along with the seizure of humanitarian assets by the Government.

Darfur peacekeepers had been twice attacked since the issuance of an arrest warrant against the Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir. Five days after the ICC decision on March , Four peacekeepers were wounded in an ambush in Darfur near El Geneina. On March 17 one peacekeeper was killed near Nyala also two UNAMID vehicles were carjacked by unidentified gunmen in El Fasher and Nyala on 11 and 18 March.

Khalikov said that much more would be known about the impact of the aid groups’ ouster when the outcome of a joint assessment mission undertaken by the Government of Sudan and the UN is made public.

(ST)