Sudan cabinet expresses regret over Security Council resolution
KHARTOUM, August 01, 2004 (SUNA) — The Council of Ministers, in its regular session Sunday chaired by First Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, expressed regret over the resolution issued by the Security Council, which gave the Sudanese government 30 days to contain Darfur crisis.
This came after the council heard a report by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Mustafa Osman Ismail on the resolution. The council deliberated on the Security Council resolution and made a number of negative and positive remarks and assigned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to convey the position of the government towards the resolution in writing to the Security Council.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Mustafa Osman Ismail said in a press statement that the Council of Minister after deliberated on the resolution reached that it contained many negative points including its issuance under Chapter 7 as the problem is being tackled in cooperation with the international community and that the Sudanese government fully cooperated in this connection.
He added that the Security Council also neglected the main cause behind Darfur incidents, which is rebel movement that began the fighting and thus it is responsible for all the humanitarian and security tragedies that occurred in Darfur.
Dr. Ismail pointed out that the Resolution, despite it contained indicators on the responsibility of the rebel movemen, but they were not strong enough to hold the rebels fully responsible, specially that the rebel movement had also aborted the African Union -sponsored Addis Ababa talks by setting pre-conditions.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs said the Council of Ministers saw that the 30 days period set by the Security Council is illogical and difficult to be implemented, specially that the agreement concluded with the UN Secretary General stipulated that it should be implemented in 90 days.
Dr. Ismail said the Council of Ministers saw positive aspects in the resolution, including the Security Council’s welcome to the joint communiqué issued by the Government of Sudan and the UN Secretary General on July 3, 2004, which included setting up a joint mechanism to implement the agreement between the two parties.
The positive aspects also included the Security Council’s call to the international community to extend the necessary humanitarian aid to Darfur as well as fulfilling the support it pledged to Sudan and Chad, the minister added.
He went on to say that the positive aspects include that the Security Council reiterated its support to Naivasha agreement between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) as well as calling on the UN Secretary General to activate the regional and international organizations to make additional measures to evade any humanitarian tragedies.
The minister said the Council of Ministers affirmed commitment to implement the agreement signed with UN Secretary General and to the joint mechanism which review this agreement, assigning the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to submit these remarks to the Security Council in a detailed written reply.
Responding to a question on giving only 30 days for implementation of the resolution, Dr. Ismail said that there a number of analysis, where some see that there are other agenda and some link it with elections being held in some Western countries, while others point out that the issue was made as scapegoat for the sense of guilt the international community and the UN feel for the inaction towards Rwanda incidents.