Sudanese FM condemns Security Council sanction threats

NEW YORK, Sep 24, 2004 (PANA) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman
Ismail has pledged to work for peace and respect for human rights
in the country’s Darfur region, but denounced a UN Security
Council resolution threatening sanctions against the North
African nation.

Addressing the UN General Assembly Thursday, Osman Ismail said
the fighting in Darfur stemmed from the actions of rebels, who
attacked tribes that refused to join their ranks.

He explained that the government had attempted to restore peace
and avoid civil war, but the conflict led to “extremely
complicated human conditions”, which Khartoum responded to
through special measures, including lifting all restrictions on
relief workers.

He said Khartoum had deployed police and opened legal offices
destroyed by the rebels and was participating in peace talks even
though the rebels had not co-operated.

But the Security Council had regrettably threatened sanctions,
emboldening the rebels and insisting on unrealistic conditions,
which, ultimately, led to the collapse of peace talks.

He said the most recent resolution adopted by the Council was “an
incentive to the rebels” and did not take into account the
government’s efforts to contain the crisis.

Other African leaders addressing the Assembly were President
Enrique Pereira Rosa of Guinea-Bissau, who said his country
unfortunately had not escaped the cycle of violence and political
crisis which plague so many African nations.

Conscious of the problem, he said Bissau authorities were
exerting efforts to rectify the situation, adding: “Our people
have suffered too much, they have endured too much. We must give
them new reasons to hope.”

Efforts were being made to foster a culture of peace and to
achieve true democracy with elections scheduled for next year, he
noted, but called for international aid to overcome the many
problems the country confronts.

President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia said West Africans could well
appreciate the fact that there would be no development in the
absence of peace.

“The region is rich in natural resources, yet wallowing in
poverty because, in large measure, of conflicts,” he told the
General Assembly.

The Gambian leader said the UN and the Economic Community for
West African States (ECOWAS) were making efforts to respond to
the crisis in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

“Now that the fires of war have subsided in these two countries,
we should focus our attention even more sharply on the festering
conflict in Cote-d’Ivoire,” he said, calling for pressure on the
parties to avoid exacerbating the crisis.

He also drew attention to other challenges across Africa,
particularly in Sudan, where he said the government must
“redouble its efforts and work in concert will all its partners
in the search for a speedy solution to the problem in Darfur.”

Ghana’s Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama opined that laudable
initiatives to halve hunger and poverty could not be achieved
without a fundamental restructuring of the global trade system,
particularly in agricultural products.

“Such an initiative should include developed countries
dismantling subsidies, lowering tariffs, and thereby helping to
uphold and safeguard an open, equitable, rule-based, predictable,
non-discriminatory trading and financial system,” he said.

Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili, the Prime Minister of Lesotho,
recalled that four years ago, leaders meeting at the UN had
adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), time-bound and
measurable targets for combating poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDS,
illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against
women.

At that time, he said, “we did not anticipate that, as we
approach the comprehensive review in 2005, the HIV and AIDS
pandemic would have become the greatest threat to life itself,
particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.”

As early as the year 2000, Lesotho had declared HIV/AIDS a
national disaster, and had taken various measures to control and
manage the pandemic, he said, noting, “We have not been alone in
this fight”.

He credited Stephen Lewis and James Morris, UN Secretary-General
special envoys on HIV/AIDS, and the Humanitarian Crisis in
southern Africa, respectively, with helping Lesotho start a
“robust” programme of anti-retroviral treatment and ensuring a
steady food supply for vulnerable and orphaned children.

“Interventions of this nature give credence to the lofty
declarations adopted at various international summits on the
HIV/AIDS pandemic, as they complement and strengthen our own
initiatives and limited resources,” he said.