Dutch minister opens first western liaison office in post-war south Sudan
RUMBEK, Sudan, Jan 20 (AFP) — Dutch Development Cooperation Minister Agnes van Ardenne Thursday inaugurated the first western liaison office in post-war southern Sudan to in Rumbek, the region’s provisional capital.
The brief ceremony saw the raising of the Dutch and British flags in front of the office building located near the town’s airstrip that will represent the interests of the two countries.
“We do have an embassy in Khartoum, but Khartoum is too far away and here in Rumbek it should be done,” van Ardenne told reporters.
“The liaison office here will be strongly linked to our embassy in Khartoum and the British embassy in Khartoum,” she added, saying the aim of having an office in the south was to ease contacts with the region’s new leaders.
Van Ardenne was the most senior western official to visit the war-ravaged town after Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) signed a peace deal ending Africa’s longest conflict.
Many nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies have already moved their offices from bases in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to Rumbek.
Last year the Dutch government donated 60 million euros (78 million dollars) for humanitarian aid in the war-torn western region of Darfur and southern Sudan and a further 3.5 million euros for the SPLM’s capacity-building project and began training southern diplomats.
“We will continue with that (humanitarian assistance),” the minister said.
She has also pledged 100 million euros for development and reconstruction in Darfur and the south, but insisted those funds will not be released unless the government resolves the conflict in Darfur.
“We can only spend that amount of money if Darfur will be stable,” she said. “If the situation doesn’t stabilize, I do not think that the donor community can come up with a huge amount of money for the reconstruction of Sudan,” van Ardenne stressed.
Tens of thousands of people have died in nearly two years of conflict in the region between ethnic minority rebels and the Sudanese government and an estimated 1.6 million displaced from their homes.
Van Ardenne was scheduled to meet with SPLM leader and incoming first vice president John Garang later in the day near the Sudanese-Kenyan border.
She said she would use the opportunity to urge Garang to use his influence on the rebel groups in Darfur to encourage them to lay down their arms and pursue a peaceful settlement to the conflict.
“I will ask him to take his influence to convince the rebel groups to stop fighting and to try to find a peaceful solution to the conflict with the government,” she promised.
“I know he is very influential on both rebel groups,” the minister added.
The conflict in southern Sudan saw at least 1.5 million people lose their lives and another four million displaced over 21 years.