UN deputy chief says Sudan’s request for UNAMID’s departure “understandable”
January 2, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan said the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Jan Eliasson, has expressed his understanding of Khartoum’s demand that the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) prepare an exit strategy from the country.
He said Eliasson underscored UN’s keenness to strengthen ties with Sudan in all spheres particularly in the development and humanitarian areas.
According to Kordofani, the UN official expressed his understanding of Sudan’s request for preparing an exit strategy for the UNAMID during the coming period.
The official spokesperson said that Karti, for his part, stressed Sudan’s desire to cooperate with the UN to implement several programs and projects, saying he praised ties between Sudan and the UN.
Karti emphasized Sudan’s commitment to meet its international obligations according to the international charters and within the framework of the required and expected cooperation and coordination between Sudan and the UN.
He also stressed that Sudan will not back down from its decision to expel two senior UN officials, pointing the individual mistakes of the UN officials will not adversely affect its relations with Sudan.
Last month, Sudan ordered the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator Ali al-Za’atari and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) country director Yvonne Helle to leave the country.
The ejection of the two UN officials come a month after the Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir called for peacekeepers from the joint UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), to leave, calling them a “security burden.”
Sudan had already shut UNAMID’s human rights office in Khartoum and called on the mission to prepare an exit plan, days after denying peacekeepers permission to pay a second visit to the site of alleged mass rapes by Sudanese soldiers in Tabit, a village in Darfur.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon had condemned the expulsion order and called upon Khartoum to reverse its decision immediately.
Last week, the UN Security Council discussed the expulsions of the two international diplomats but failed to take a position as the 15-member body was divided on the matter.
Sudanese authorities routinely accuse UN agencies working in the country of non-neutrality and seeking to serve the agenda of foreign intelligence agencies and going beyond their mandate. The security apparatus also closely monitors UN workers in Sudan.
Last April, the foreign ministry expelled the head of United Nations Population Fund (UNPFA) in Sudan on charge of interfering in the country’s internal affairs.
In the past, Sudan expelled, the former RC/HC Mukesh Kapila in 2004 and the former UN special envoy for Sudan Jan Pronk in 2006. Both were accused of criticizing the government policy in Darfur.
Immediately after the first arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Bashir in March 2009, Sudan expelled 13 aid groups from Darfur accusing it of collaborating with the war crime courts.
Since then, the Sudanese government intensified its crackdown on foreign aid agencies.
(ST)