UNAMID chief, SLM leader keep talking about security and peace

March 30, 2010 (PARIS) – The head of the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID met for the second time in Paris on Sunday 28 March with Abdel Wahid Al-Nur leader of the rebel of the Sudan Liberation Movement to follow up their discussions on joint cooperation and peace process.

Gambari and Al-Nur met on 21 March for the first time in Paris where they pledged to work together in a way to facilitate UNAMID duties related to the protection of civilians and humanitarian assistance. There were no contacts between the two parties and the SLM-AW had blamed the restricted mandate of the hybrid operation.

Also, the rebel leader is not part of the peace process in Doha as he asks Khartoum to improve the security situation and to disarm the government militias before to engage talks for peace in the restive region of Darfur.

“The SLA-AW leader reiterated his commitment to peace if certain conditions on the ground were met and indicated that he would be willing to participate in the peace process anywhere, ‘even in Khartoum,’ if those conditions are met, particularly regarding the security of the people of Darfur,” said a statement released by the UNAMID.

After attending the Arab summit in Libya, Gambari had a stopover in Paris to meet Nur while he was on his way to New York to introduce UNAMID proposed budget for the new financial year 2010-2011 before UN fifth Committee scheduled for today Thursday.

The current budget of the largest peacekeeping operation is one billion six hundred million US dollar but the UNAMID chief wants to raise it to one billion nine hundred eleven million dollar. The budget rise is seen crucial to cope with the growing number of peacekeepers and increasing activities of the mission.

Speaking from Paris, Al-Nur hailed the efforts exerted by Gambari to boost UNAMID capabilities and showed readiness to cooperate with the peacekeeping mission in order to restore security on the ground.

The rebel leader further told Sudan Tribune that he asked Gambari to establish a joint mechanism in a way to facilitate a transparent and responsible cooperation for the security and protection of civilians.

Asked to comment the meeting, Noureddine Mezni said enhancing security of civilians is on the top priorities of the Joint Special Representative.

He also stressed “we have now sufficient number of troops on the ground to implement the core mandate of UNAMID which consists in enhancing security and protection of civilians”.

(ST)