UNMIS officials visit W. Equatoria over detention of UN helicopter
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May 14, 2011 (KAMPALA) - On Thursday morning a UN Mission in Sudan
(UNMIS) delegation headed by sector commander, Summan Kumar, arrived
in Yambio to discuss the brief detention of a UN helicopter in
Namutina payam in Nagero County.
The delegation was received state governor Bangasi Joseph Bakosoro in
his office.
JPEG - 42.6 kb
UNMIS Sector commander, Col Suman Kumar (ST)
On the 14 April 2011, a UN helicopter was briefly detained in
Namutina, Nagero county, by the local authority due to a breakdown of
information between UNMIS and authorities on the ground, regarding the
flight’s “monitoring mission” to the area.
The sector commander said that the UNMIS authority is concerned about
the last two incidents of the detention of the UN helicopter and
stoppage of the UN patrol to Birisi.
Summan stated that the helicopter had the authorisation from Juba to
patrol the area, and on board was one SPLA soldier and one language
assistant.
Bakosoro said it is the first time that a UN flight has come to
Namutina and the state had not given them clearance.
“We found that one of the flights bearing UN symbol was flying
towards Namutina area, without our information and we had no ETA for
the flight, we don’t have flight clearance for Namutina, and it was
also for the first time for UN flight to go to Namutina,” maintained
Bakosoro.
The governor pointed out that following the incidents that took place
last year in Raja, Gog Machar and Darfur, the state government has to
find out “if it is the same Khartoum flight using the UN emblem to
bomb us or a different flight. After we knew it was a UN flight we
released the flight and it went back.”
Bakosoro explained that “UN flights always land in Tambura, any flight
beyond that we suspected that flight because we have had bad
experience from the Khartoum government flying helicopters using UN
symbol.”
He stated that every human being here know UN logo and respect it, but
when we see the same symbol bombing we have to take measures as
government.
The UN sector commander acknowledged that there was poor coordination
in the operations.
“I think there is problem of miscommunication, we shall also see if
there is some loose ends, we will now coordinate more on ground, we
shall be talking to brigade commander, county commissioner, payam
[village] - so there is no more confusion about UN helicopters” said
Suman.
Suman revealed that they “will try to coordinate both military and
civilian channels and UNMIS coordinator in state will spearhead the
efforts.”
The governor called upon the UNMIS to feed the state government with
relevant information before such activities are carried out.
The meeting resolved that UNMIS’s relevant bodies will conduct
workshops in communities around the areas they intend to monitor, to
explain the UNMIS mandate.
However he called for the respect of the home guards who are providing
protection to the citizens in town and the UN staff.
The governor assured the delegation that such incidents will not
happen again as far as the right channels of information are
coordinated with the state government.
(UN)
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