Sudan refuses to grant Ugandan peacekeepers visas for Darfur mission: report
* Article
* Comments (0)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
March 27, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government has refused to
give Ugandan peacekeepers their visas to serve in the war-ravaged
region of Darfur as part of UNAMID force, Kampala-based newspaper said
in its Monday edition.
JPEG - 41.1 kb
FILE - UNAMID soldiers guard a high-level meeting with Chinese,
European, United Nations and African Union officials in El-Fasher, the
capital of North Darfur on July 5, 2010 (AFP)
’The Monitor’ said that Uganda has been seeking to rotate 108 police
officers serving in Darfur but due to the visa issue asked for the
United Nations’s permission to extend the tenure of the existing
peacekeepers.
The Ugandan Ministry of Internal Affairs Permanent Secretary, Stephen
Kagoda, reportedly said in his letter that the extension was necessary
to avoid a "replacement vacuum" since the current Ugandan contingent’s
tour of duty was due to expire on March 25.
According to the report, in a February 21 diplomatic note, Sudan’s
Foreign Affairs Ministry informed UNAMID that requests for visas for
new police peacekeepers "are NOT approved", because "efforts should be
directed towards increasing Arabic-speaking police as agreed".
The United Nations Police Adviser in the Department of Peacekeeping
Operations Ann-Marie Orler, wrote back to UNAMID Police Commissioner
James Oppong-Boanuh on March 15, authorizing that services of the
Ugandan group be extended by four months up to July 25, 2011.
However, other Ugandan officials gave conflicting statements saying
that the contingent serving in Darfur will be replaced as planned and
that securing the visas is the responsibility of the United Nations.
If the report is true it would reflect the strained relations between
the two countries since last year particularly as Kampala publicly
supported South Sudan independence which materialized in the
referendum that took place last January. It will become official in
July.
Uganda is now also hosting two Darfur rebel leaders including
Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Minni
Minnawi who leads a faction of the same movement.
(ST)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD
info" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
