The Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Lam Akol, will on Friday (March 10th) present to the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council Sudan’s advocacy on its position on the proposal for the deployment of International Forces in Darfur.
Sudan’s Deputy Envoy to the AU, Al-Tayeb Ali Ahmed, told SUNA that the Foreign Affairs Minister will address the Council’s First Session during which he will explain Sudan’s Vision as regards this issue, in addition to answering questions that would posed by the Council members. The AU Commission Chairperson, Alpha Omar Konare, will present a report on the issue in this session, which would be attended by UN Representative to Sudan and those from other States, Ahmed added. The Deputy Envoy said that Sudan delegation would not attend the second session for discussions and deliberations as the Council’s law does not allow the State concerned to attend such deliberations. On the other hand, the State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Al-Samani Al-Wasila, said that sending wrong signals to rebels by some States resulted in delaying of talks between the Government and the Darfurian Armed Movements. Wasila is reported to have said that such issues ought to have been dealt with through official channels and not through media, adding that the Armed Movements have from the beginning of the conflict demanded for the intervention of UN forces. The Minister who was talking at a press conference in Cairo said that the Armed forces have identified their locations and handled over the maps showing their routes and the quantity of weapons they have. “Up to this day, the Armed Forces have maintained cooperation with the AU Forces and the International Community”, said Wasila. He demanded that pressure be put on rebels to identify their locations in order to enforce effective ceasefire. The Minister stated that the word Janjaweed has been politically used to refer to any Darfurian taking up arms, noting that no party would agree to hand over their weapons since other parties are taking up arms and are refusing to hand them over. That, according to the Minister, makes it necessary to identify locations first, to be followed by monitoring and collection of arms and then, conduction of joint combing-up of the region by the Armed forces, armed movements and the AU in the three regions of Darfur to collect arms. On the deployment of UN Forces in Darfur, the Minister referred to their rejection by the National Assembly and all Sudanese political forces He added that UN Forces need a long period to acclimatize to the region. “The AU and the International Community should realize that we will be heading for a dangerous time under the currently hostile climate towards deployment of UN Forces,” said the Minister. Wasila said Sudan does not need any party to mediate between it and the UN since Sudan is a member of the International Organization, adding that when Sudan feels that the crisis has become bigger than the ability of the AU, it will resort to the UN. However, he added, the deployment of International Forces has been assessed as would lead to more violence not only in Darfur, but also in neighbouring countries. We have rejected this deployment. Wasila expressed hope that the International Community would understand the real dimensions of the crisis and cooperate with Sudan to expedite the process of the Abuja talks by pressuring Armed Movements to unify their ranks and make their demands reasonable during the interim period so that democratic transformation could be realized. |
