UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 23 September 2008 --African Union-United Nations soldiers based in Darfur as part of UNAMID met today with Sudanese police, national security, and military intelligence personnel to talk about issues surrounding the mission in the country. The goal was to harmonize operations between UNAMID and Sudanese forces by covering topics related to the respective roles of the government and UNAMID in dealing with the conflict in Darfur.

Henry Anyidoho, UNAMID representative in Sudan, told the participants, primarily mid- to upper-level officials, “This was our plan for [so] long to share more information with our partners in the government” and went on to say, “We strongly believe that sharing and understanding of UN security mechanisms and guidelines by our friends would help them secure the UN staff and property.” The mission made clear that safeguarding UN personnel and assets in the country falls under the obligation of Sudan. 

The Chief of the Sudanese Police Force in North Darfur, General Ahmad Atta Al Mannan Othman, spoke of the common commitment of UNAMID and Sudanese officials to ending insecurity and violence in Darfur and encouraged the two sides to cooperate to this end. He also asked UNAMID to increase its work with police in Darfur, including setting up more locations to conduct training.

Currently, the UN is continuing to monitor the situation in Darfur as the violence that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives does not appear likely to disappear in the near future. Over the weekend, the Secretary-General, along with AU Commission Chairperson Jean Ping, called a meeting in New York of top members of both the UN and the AU to discuss the ongoing problems in the Sudanese region.

Among those who spoke were Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes, who talked about the continued decline of the area into instability and fighting and the difficulties these realities have caused in reaching the millions who require international humanitarian assistance.

Under-Secretary-General for Field Support Susana Malcorra added her expertise and informed those assembled about the present problems with bringing the UN-AU peace keeping mission to its full planned strength of 26,000. Right now it is a mere 10,000.

Among the initiatives discussed for going further are speeding up the process of iproving relations with Chad and the progress of the Qatari initiative, led by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani, to bring a halt to the fighting among the Sudanese government, the Janjaweed, and armed opposition groups.

Finally, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo revealed that hopes that an arrest warrant be drawn up for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Back in July he asked that such a warrant be created and he held earlier this week that he and his team “presented a solid case. The evidence shows that crimes against Darfurians continue today,” going on to say that “[Mr.] al-Bashir has complete control of his forces, and they are raping women today, they are promoting conditions in the camps to destroy complete communities and they are still bombing schools.”

Judges at the ICC are considering the facts now and the Prosector was confident that, “Between criminals and 2.5 million victims, they should make the right decision.” He and the ICC are continuing to collect evidence, asking the Sudanese Government for details on recent violence at a displaced persons camp and Mr. Moreno-Ocampo will be speaking with many officials and world leaders in New York this week.

--- Caroline Patton

Labels: United Nations, U.N., MaximsNews

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