UN, Khartoum officials meet Friday on Darfur crisis
NEW YORK, Sep 14, 2004 (PANA) — The joint body charged with implementing
commitments made by the Sudanese government and the United
Nations to end the fighting in the strife-torn Darfur region will
hold its next meeting Friday.
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters here that the meeting of
the Joint Implementation Mechanism (JIM) is likely to focus on
how to help Khartoum put in place the pledges it made under a
joint communique signed in early July.
Khartoum promised then to immediately begin disarming the
notorious Janjaweed militias, who are accused of murdering or
raping thousands of civilians, to end impunity for those
responsible for the worst atrocities, and to protect Darfur’s
swelling population of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
On 2 September Jan Pronk, the Secretary-General’s Special
Representative for Sudan and the co-chair of JIM, told the
Security Council that Khartoum has not disarmed the Janjaweed nor
stopped their attacks.
Friday’s meeting will be the first since Pronk’s briefing and the
submission to the Council of a report on the Darfur crisis by
Secretary-General Kofi Annan. That report found that “some of the
core commitments” have not been met by Khartoum.
Meanwhile, Pronk said he was concerned by reports of fresh
clashes across Darfur, especially in the north, between
government forces and members of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army
(SLA).
He urged the two rebel groups, the SLA and the Justice and
Equality Movement (JEM), and the Sudanese government to resume
their peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria.
The talks, which are being mediated by the African Union (AU),
were adjourned over the weekend after they became bogged down on
security issues.
Eckhard said the heads of the delegations to the talks are
expected to meet Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to discuss
where and when to resume the talks.
At least 1.2 million people are internally displaced and another
200,000 are refugees in neighbouring Chad owing to the Janjaweed
attacks and fighting between Khartoum and the SLA and JEM.