United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has reported no progress by the Sudanese government to end the crisis in the western Darfur region, citing continuing clashes, attacks against civilians, escalating banditry and tribal conflict.
In a report to the UN Security Council circulated on Monday night, Annan described fresh promises by the Khartoum government but no positive action during September to end the 19-month conflict that has killed over 50 000 people and forced 1,4 million to flee their homes.
Annan said the government had made ”no further progress” in September in key areas essential to restoring security, including implementing a ceasefire, stopping attacks on civilians, disarming militias, and persecuting the perpetrators of atrocities.
”It is clear that the ceasefire is not holding in many parts of Darfur,” he said. ”Today, still increasing numbers of the population of Darfur are exposed, without any protection from their government, to hunger, fear and violence.
”The numbers affected by the conflict are growing and their suffering is being prolonged by inaction,” he said. ”In a significant proportion of the territory the security conditions have worsened.”
Annan’s second monthly report was issued hours before his top envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, was to brief the Security Council on Tuesday morning.
Britain’s UN Ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, the current council president, said he did not expect a new Security Council resolution on Sudan.
The council adopted a resolution last month strongly endorsing deployment of a beefed-up African Union force with an expanded monitoring mission that would actively try to prevent attacks and mediate to stop the conflict from escalating. It threatens oil sanctions against Sudan unless the government reins in Arab militias blamed for the killing and looting spree in Darfur.
Annan noted that his previous report had cited ”some progress” by the government including improving security in several areas where Sudanese have taken refuge, deployment of additional police, and lifting restrictions to humanitarian relief.
”In the month of September, this progress has not been reversed,” he said.
But Annan said Pronk had received reports ”on clashes, attacks, hijackings, banditry and tribal conflict” from UN staff and humanitarian groups on the ground and said much more needs to be done to protect civilians and restore security.
”The most important step to be taken in the coming weeks is beginning the deployment of the expanded African Union force,” he said.
Last week, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who heads the African Union, said the 53-nation body can quickly mobilise up to 5 000 troops to help end the looting and killing in Darfur but it needs hundreds of millions of dollars to deploy the force.
The AU now has 68 military observers in Darfur — a region about the size of France — protected by 308 soldiers, monitoring a rarely observed cease-fire signed in April by the government and rebels.
Facing a UN-authorised genocide investigation and the threat of UN sanctions, Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told the Security Council on Thursday that Khartoum would accept 3 500 African Union troops for Darfur. Later, he told reporters that if the AU wants ”5 000 [troops], it’s no problem”.
Sudan’s Arab-dominated government is accused of mobilising Arab tribal fighters for attacks on Darfur’s villagers, in retaliation for uprisings launched by two non-Arab Darfur rebel movements in February 2003. Sudan denies any responsibility and says it has disarmed some of the Arab militiamen, known as Janjaweed.
Annan said the second major issue this month is the resumption of peace talks between the government and the two rebel groups in Darfur on October 24.
In a separate report earlier on Monday, Annan urged the government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) to end their 21-year civil war in southern Sudan, saying a peace accord there could help end the Darfur conflict.
Annan welcomed the decision of the government and the SPLM to resume negotiations on October 7 and called for a speedy agreement to end the southern conflict.
In the report on Monday night, Annan said a successful resumption of north-south talks ”will contribute to the attainment of a political solution in Darfur at the talks due to resume at the end of October.”
”The outcome of the north-south process … can serve as a model for Darfur,” he said, citing its new constitution, a federal structure for the state, a broad-based government and, most importantly, peace.
But Annan warned that failure in the north-south talks ”will endanger Sudan as a whole and also the region”. – Sapa-AP