UN special envoy to Sudan says progress on commitments has slowed
By MOHAMED OSMAN, Associated Press Writer
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Aug 25, 2004 (AP) — The U.N. special envoy to Sudan on Wednesday said there has been “hardly any progress” in the final days before a deadline for the African nation to comply with a Security Council resolution or face sanctions.
The United Nations also issued an appeal for US$434 million to meet Sudan’s humanitarian needs through the end of the year, with U.N. envoy Jan Pronk saying the international community should put Sudan at the top of its list of priorities.
Pronk told reporters that he has not yet been given the names of the Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed, suspected of violence in the troubled Darfur region, despite a promise from Khartoum to disclose their identities.
“I have not yet received any list of Janjaweed. And there were even general instructions for everybody to lay down their arms, and not specific instructions (for the Janjaweed),” Pronk said.
A U.N. Security Council resolution passed last month gave Sudan until Aug. 30 to disarm the Arab militia, blamed for looting and murdering thousands of black African farmers, or face economic and diplomatic sanctions.
Pronk said it was imperative that those people be “identified and monitored.”
He said he has also not been officially notified of the identities of those the government said it has tried in connection with the Janjaweed atrocities.
Pronk said there has been “hardly any progress” in the final 10-day phase of a plan of action signed between the U.N. and Sudan to meet the deadline. He did not elaborate.
Pronk said a U.N. delegation that would assess Sudan’s compliance with the deadline would consider whether a list of Janjaweed was provided, whether all troops were pulled out of the camps, the state of security in the affected areas and whether the government was seeking a genuine political solution to the conflict through negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria.
U.N. officials say Darfur has become the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis since African rebels rose against the government in February 2003, claiming discrimination in the distribution of scarce resources. An estimated 30,000 black Africans have died and some 1.2 million have fled their homes in the uprising. The government has been accused of trying to crush the revolt by backing a scorched earth policy carried out by the Janjaweed _ an accusation it denies although last week it acknowledged it has “control” over some Janjaweed fighters.
“The situation of those people is tragic,” Pronk said of the displaced people.
Underscoring that, Manuel Aranda Da Silva, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan, used the same news conference to appeal for US$434 million (A?359 million) _ out of a promised US$722 million (A?597 million) _ to meet Sudan’s humanitarian needs through the end of the year, not just in Darfur but across the country.
“While the number of people in critical need of humanitarian assistance has skyrocketed in Darfur in recent months, I implore the international community to also remember the plight of millions of vulnerable people struggling to survive all over the country,” Aranda Da Silva said.