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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

SUDAN: Monitoring team grounded for a month

NAIROBI, 7 April 2003 (IRIN) - The Civilian Protection Monitoring Team (CPMT), which was established under the framework of the Sudanese peace process to monitor attacks on civilians, says it has been grounded since 7 March and therefore unable to conduct any investigations.

"There is a lack of agreement between the government of Sudan and the team on their responsibilities," CPMT Director of Operations Laney Pankey told IRIN on Monday.

Since 7 March the two teams, located in Rhumbek and Khartoum, had only been able to conduct administrative flights to deliver supplies or relocate personnel, he said. "There have been no visits to sites to complete investigations and no new investigations have been initiated."

Normally, the CPMT would notify the Sudanese foreign ministry of any planned investigations, which would then inform a military intelligence division. Since 7 March, Sudanese military intelligence had stopped processing the notifications which meant CPMT teams were unable to travel, Pankey said. "They [military] are supposed to provide security protection and acknowledge what we are going to do," he added.

Pankey emphasised that the teams did not require any permission or authority to travel to conduct their investigations, but they did need "the full support and cooperation" from the military and local militias for reasons of safety and security. The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) was also notified of any investigations, he said.

The spokesman at the Sudanese embassy in Nairobi, Muhammad Ahmad Dirdeiry, told IRIN that the CPMT "thinks that it has been entrusted by the [regional body] Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to undertake the duties of the Verification and Monitoring Team (VMT)".

The VMT was mandated in early February 2003 to monitor the cessation of hostilities agreement between the government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), but has not yet undertaken any missions.

"This point is not agreed that the CPMT shall replace the VMT," Dirdeiry said.

He said that Sudanese intelligence had discovered that the CPMT was verifying alleged violations of the agreement on the cessation of hostilities, and the government had therefore "denied it permission to verify such violations".

He added that the government was fully committed to fulfilling the "original mandate of the CPMT" and the issue would be "hammered out" when peace talks reopened in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday.

The US-led CPMT was mandated to monitor attacks on civilians and civilian facilities by a 31 March 2002 agreement between the government and the SPLM/A.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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