Sudan demands single voice for U.N., to avoid ‘bad image’ in Darfur

KHARTOUM, Aug 11 (AFP) — Sudan on Wednesday told the United Nations to channel through one spokesman all comments on the war-wracked region of Darfur to avoid presenting a “bad image” of the situation there.

Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told journalists that if this did not happen, Khartoum might have to reconsider commitments it had made to the UN.

The UN has said Darfur is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with upto 50,000 dead, 1.2 million refugees, and continued killings and rape. The Security Council has threatened unspecified measures is Khartoum does not rein in the violence there by the end of this month.

Ismail said his government had agreed with Secretary General Kofi Annan that his special envoy Jan Pronk would be the official UN spokesman.

He pointed out that Annan’s spokesman Fred Eckhard spoke of new incidents of violence on Tuesday in Darfur, alleging the government had launched helicopter raids while pro-government Janjaweed militiamen continued attacks on displaced persons.

At the same time the refugee agency, UNHCR, issued a statement expressing its worry about alleged pressures being put by the government on displaced people to return to their villages in the absence of security there, Ismail said.

He called upon the UN to control its statements as agreed “if it really wants security to prevail in Darfur, otherwise the government will reconsider its commitments.”