UN envoy sees lack of progress on Darfur security
By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 15 (Reuters) – The top U.N. official in Sudan expressed concern on Sunday about a “lack of progress on the ground” in reining in marauding Arab militias in Sudan’s western Darfur region, the United Nations said.
The remarks by Jan Pronk were released in New York about two weeks before a Security Council deadline for Sudan to demonstrate that it is serious about improving the security situation in Darfur or face unspecified sanctions.
Pronk is U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s special representative for Sudan.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail told reporters in Khartoum earlier Sunday that the government had designated safe areas in Darfur, including the capitals of each of Darfur’s three states — Nyala, el-Fasher and Geneina — and the surrounding areas.
The towns of Sani, Deleiva and Abu, along with the area of Ajouraha in South Darfur state and the area of Mornei in West Darfur state were also designated safe areas, which the government has pledged to secure by the end of August.
“We have identified these areas and implementation will begin tomorrow (Monday),” said Ismail, adding that monitors deployed by the African Union would be asked to head to those areas.
The U.N. statement said Pronk “welcomed the steps being taken by the government and indicated the crucial phase will be the one when it could be demonstrated that these actions have borne fruit on the ground, when substantial, verifiable and substantial improvement of the security situation in the selected areas will be achieved.”
“He (Pronk) expressed concern about the lack of progress registered so far on the ground and at the fact that the Janjaweed militia was still active around the IDP camps and continued to be a threat,” the statement said, referring to camps for the so-called internally displaced persons driven from their homes by the conflict in Darfur.
Rights groups and the rebels accuse Khartoum of arming Arab militias known as the Janjaweed — a term derived from the Arabic for “devils on horseback” — to loot and burn African farming villages as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Khartoum denies the charge and says the Janjaweed are outlaws.
The United Nations calls Darfur the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and says 50,000 people have been killed and at least 1 million more driven from their homes since two rebel groups took up arms against the government in February 2003.
In the U.N. statement, Pronk also complained that U.N. staff and relief workers had been barred from Kalma camp, east of the South Darfur state capital Nyala, since camp residents beat and stabbed to death on Friday a man they accused of being a Janjaweed fighter.
Pronk was “very concerned” that aid workers had been denied access to the camp, whose residents — including malnourished children — required daily assistance, the statement said.
Pronk had raised the issue with the Sudanese authorities and “hopes that full access to the camp will be granted as soon as possible,” the statement said.