UN deputy chief says Sudan’s request for UNAMID’s departure “understandable”
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January 2, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan said the Deputy Secretary-General
of the United Nations, Jan Eliasson, has expressed his understanding
of Khartoum’s demand that the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur
(UNAMID) prepare an exit strategy from the country.
JPEG - 9.6 kb
Jan Eliasson
The official spokesperson of Sudan’s foreign ministry, Youssef
al-Kordofani, said Sudan’s foreign minister, Ali Karti, received a
phone call from Eliasson, pointing they discussed relations between
Sudan and the UN.
He said Eliasson underscored UN’s keenness to strengthen ties with
Sudan in all spheres particularly in the development and humanitarian
areas.
According to Kordofani, the UN official expressed his understanding of
Sudan’s request for preparing an exit strategy for the UNAMID during
the coming period.
The official spokesperson said that Karti, for his part, stressed
Sudan’s desire to cooperate with the UN to implement several programs
and projects, saying he praised ties between Sudan and the UN.
Karti emphasized Sudan’s commitment to meet its international
obligations according to the international charters and within the
framework of the required and expected cooperation and coordination
between Sudan and the UN.
He also stressed that Sudan will not back down from its decision to
expel two senior UN officials, pointing the individual mistakes of the
UN officials will not adversely affect its relations with Sudan.
Last month, Sudan ordered the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian
Coordinator Ali al-Za’atari and the UN Development Programme (UNDP)
country director Yvonne Helle to leave the country.
The ejection of the two UN officials come a month after the Sudanese
president Omer Hassan al-Bashir called for peacekeepers from the joint
UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), to leave, calling them a
“security burden.”
Sudan had already shut UNAMID’s human rights office in Khartoum and
called on the mission to prepare an exit plan, days after denying
peacekeepers permission to pay a second visit to the site of alleged
mass rapes by Sudanese soldiers in Tabit, a village in Darfur.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon had condemned the expulsion order and
called upon Khartoum to reverse its decision immediately.
Last week, the UN Security Council discussed the expulsions of the two
international diplomats but failed to take a position as the 15-member
body was divided on the matter.
Sudanese authorities routinely accuse UN agencies working in the
country of non-neutrality and seeking to serve the agenda of foreign
intelligence agencies and going beyond their mandate. The security
apparatus also closely monitors UN workers in Sudan.
Last April, the foreign ministry expelled the head of United Nations
Population Fund (UNPFA) in Sudan on charge of interfering in the
country’s internal affairs.
In the past, Sudan expelled, the former RC/HC Mukesh Kapila in 2004
and the former UN special envoy for Sudan Jan Pronk in 2006. Both were
accused of criticizing the government policy in Darfur.
Immediately after the first arrest warrant of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) against Bashir in March 2009, Sudan expelled 13
aid groups from Darfur accusing it of collaborating with the war crime
courts.
Since then, the Sudanese government intensified its crackdown on
foreign aid agencies.
(ST)
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