EU calls on Sudanese authorities to show proof of goodwill and tangible results

BRUSSELS, Aug 4, 2004 (Agence Europe) — The seven civil and military experts of the EU who left for Sudan on Tuesday (see EUROPE of 3 August, p.2) have arrived in the region of Darfur. Their mission is to identify as a matter of urgency the additional measures required to improve EU support to the ceasefire observer mission of the African Union (AU) in Darfur. The team of experts headed by Peter Feith, adviser on crisis management to Javier Solana, EU High Representative for CFSP, is expected to remain in the area for five days in order to assess the magnitude of humanitarian needs for the victims of exaction committed by the Janjaweed Arab militia against the black population. The EU now calls on the Sudanese authorities to show proof, with concrete action, of their genuine willingness to resolve the violent conflict which has been raging since early 2003 causing the death of thousands with around two million direct or indirect victims over the past twelve months.

Kent Degerfelt, EU Representative in Khartoum, told AFP on Tuesday, the day when EU experts arrived in the Sudanese capital, that: “We are not asking for what is impossible or for the problems of Darfur to be resolved in just thirty days. We are asking for progress on the ground and for the government to show willingness to move in the right direction”. Without speaking of all the commitments that the Sudanese authorities are to keep – mainly that of putting an end to the atrocities committed – if they wish to escape the implicit threat of sanctions contained in the UN Security Council’s resolution on Sudan, Mr Degerfelt told AFP that it would be a step in the right direction once specific areas have been made secure. He went on to add: “Making Darfur secure to allow displaced persons to return home is the greatest problem facing us today”.

The same day, the Sudanese government gave its approval to sending a Belgian C130 transport plane to carry aid to victims. According to Armand de Decker, the new Belgian minister for development cooperation who stayed in Darfur and held talks on Tuesday in Khartoum with the Sudanese authorities and Kent Degerfelt, the Sudanese leaders have understood that they must act. “I believe they have understood that they must take measures even if this awareness is quite recent”, he told Belga.

Resolution 1556 on Sudan, adopted on 30 July this year by the United Nations Security Council with the EU’s full support, makes an urgent appeal to the Sudanese government to immediately keep all its commitments made on 3 July in the agreement on bringing peace to Sudan, signed in the presence of Kofi Annan (see EUROPE of 30 July, p.4). It also calls on the UN Secretary General to present a report within 30 days and then once a month on complying with the commitments made by the Sudanese authorities to disarm the Janjaweed leaders and militia. Should the Sudanese government not meet its commitments, the resolution provides for measures to be envisaged under Article 41 of the United Nations Charter.

The European Commission, which programmed spending EUR 104.4 million for Sudan in 2004 by targeting intervention on conflict resolution, the promotion of a political settlement between the Government of Sudan and the rebels, humanitarian aid and preparation of the country’s reconstruction and development when conditions so allow, will contribute 37% of the global EU response to the Darfur crisis, the amount of which is estimated at EUR 285 million for the current year. Funds already made available by the Commission via ECHO (the Community’s Humanitarian Aid Office) for emergency humanitarian aid in Darfur amounts to EUR 14 million from autumn 2003 for the victims of the internal crisis in Sudan and Chad, and to EUR 92 million this year (for food aid, protection for the humanitarian personnel and care to the victims of sexual violence and other trauma, the provision of shelter and non-food necessities such as clothing, blankets, cooking utensils, fuel, etc.) The lack of security which hampers access to victims remains the main problem for deploying humanitarian aid urgently needed by the population.