UNMIS officials visit W. Equatoria over detention of UN helicopter

May 14, 2011 (KAMPALA) – On Thursday morning a UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) delegation headed by sector commander, Summan Kumar, arrived in Yambio to discuss the brief detention of a UN helicopter in Namutina payam in Nagero County. 

The delegation was received state governor Bangasi Joseph Bakosoro in his office.

On the 14 April 2011, a UN helicopter was briefly detained in Namutina, Nagero county, by the local authority due to a breakdown of information between UNMIS and authorities on the ground, regarding the flight’s “monitoring mission” to the area.

The sector commander said that the UNMIS authority is concerned about the last two incidents of the detention of the UN helicopter and stoppage of the UN patrol to Birisi.

Summan stated that the helicopter had the authorisation from Juba to patrol the area, and on board was one SPLA soldier and one language assistant.

Bakosoro said it is the first time that a UN  flight has come to Namutina and the state had not given them clearance.

“We found that one of the  flights bearing UN symbol was flying towards Namutina  area, without our information and we had no ETA for the flight, we don’t have flight clearance for Namutina, and it was also for the first time for UN flight to go to  Namutina,” maintained Bakosoro.

The governor pointed out that following the incidents that took place last year in Raja, Gog Machar and Darfur, the state government has to find out “if it is the same Khartoum flight using the UN emblem to bomb us or a different flight. After we knew it was a UN flight we released the flight and it went back.” 

Bakosoro explained that “UN flights always land in Tambura, any flight beyond that we suspected that flight because we have had bad experience from the Khartoum government flying helicopters using UN symbol.”

He stated that every human being here know UN logo and respect it, but when we see the same symbol bombing we have to take measures as government.

The UN sector commander acknowledged that there was poor coordination in the operations.

“I think there is problem of miscommunication, we shall also see if there is some loose ends, we will now coordinate more on ground, we shall be talking to brigade commander, county commissioner, payam [village] – so there is no more confusion about UN helicopters” said Suman.

Suman revealed that they “will try to coordinate both military and civilian channels and UNMIS coordinator in state will spearhead the efforts.”

The governor called upon the UNMIS to feed the state government with relevant information before such activities are carried out.

The meeting resolved that UNMIS’s relevant bodies will conduct workshops in communities around the areas they intend to monitor, to explain the UNMIS mandate.

However he called for the respect of the home guards who are providing protection to the citizens in town and the UN staff.

The governor assured the delegation that such incidents will not happen again as far as the right channels of information are coordinated with the state government.

(UN)