The Sudanese military declared United Nations special envoy Jan Pronk persona non grata on Friday, accusing him of ”waging war against the armed forces”, in the latest escalation in a war of words between Khartoum and the international community.
The general command accused Pronk, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s special representative in Sudan, of ”openly intruding in the armed forces’ affairs”.
It considers the envoy’s presence and movements in Sudan ”a military threat that adversely affects the performance of the armed forces and [he] has therefore become a persona non grata”, a statement said.
It complained that the envoy had travelled around Sudan without government permission and dealt with rebel groups fighting the military in the western region of Darfur.
It also accused Pronk of ”waging psychological warfare on the armed forces by propagating erroneous information that casts doubts about the capability of the armed forces in maintaining security and defending the country”.
A senior general called for the envoy’s swift deportation.
”The presence of Jan Pronk in the Sudan constitutes a threat to the Sudan’s national security and an immediate decision for his deportation from the Sudan should therefore be taken,” former armed forces spokesperson General Mohammed Beshir Suleiman told the official Suna news agency.
The envoy ”has gone beyond the boundaries of his responsibilities and duties”, said Suleiman, charging that Pronk was abusing his position to attempt to force Sudan to accept a UN Security Council resolution authorising the dispatch of 20 000 UN peacekeepers to Darfur to replace an African Union force.
”The envoy, with this statement, intended to prove that the armed forces and the African Union forces have failed in keeping peace and that the national army is incapable of protecting the civilians against rebel attacks, and thus to pave the way for implementation of Resolution 1 706,” he said.
The government of President Omar al-Beshir has repeatedly refused to allow the deployment of UN peacekeepers to replace the overstretched AU force, charging that the Security Council resolution was a Western plot to occupy his country and plunder its resources.
However, it remained unclear whether the government would follow the military’s stance toward Pronk.
No UN comment
A UN spokesperson in Khartoum declined to comment and said UN offices had not received a copy of the military statement.
”We never react to anything that is published in the press and attributed to any person and that we have not received officially,” spokesperson Radhia Achoure said.
On Wednesday, the UN’s daily Sudan internet bulletin spoke of mounting tensions between Pronk and the military over his reporting of setbacks for the army in Darfur.
”On October 17, the Sudan armed forces [SAF] spokesman strongly criticised SRSG [special representative] Pronk, describing him as ‘aggressive and lacking credibility’,” the bulletin said.
”This came about following the SRSG’s recent statements on SAF suffering heavy losses in Darfur,” it added.
Pronk had reported on the UN website last Saturday that the SAF had ”lost two major battles last month in Umm Sidir and this week in Karakaya”.
”The losses seem to have been very high. Reports speak about hundreds of casualties in each of the two battles, many wounded soldiers and many taken as prisoner,” he said. ”The morale in the government army in North Darfur has gone down. Some generals have been sacked; soldiers have refused fighting.”
The envoy went on to accuse the army of resorting to Arab militias with links to the feared Janjaweed, the pro-government militia accused of a raft of human rights abuses against ethnic minority civilians in Darfur that Washington says amounted to genocide.
”The use of militia with ties with the Janjaweed recalls the events in 2003 and 2004,” he said. ”During that period of the conflict, systematic militia attacks, supported or at least allowed by the SAF, led to atrocious crimes.”
The Khartoum regime has always denied that it sponsored the Janjaweed, an assertion disputed by human rights groups and Washington.
At least 200 000 people have died as a result of fighting, famine and disease, and more than two million fled their homes since the rebels launched their uprising in Darfur in early 2003, drawing a scorched-earth response from the military and its militia allies. — Sapa-AFP