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Blue helmets will only be effective if they have Sudanese consent, says Annan

5 September 2006 – The planned United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur will only be effective if the Sudanese Government gives its consent and cooperation, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today as the Security Council unveiled plans for a high-level meeting on the issue next week.

Speaking to reporters in Alexandria after talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Mr. Annan said that blue helmets would be there “to help the Government protect the people and assist them. We are not going there to invade. We have no other intentions.”

Last week Council members agreed to dispatch more than 17,000 UN peacekeepers to Darfur as part of a resolution that also “invites the consent” of the Sudanese Government to the deployment. Khartoum has stated on several occasions that it is opposed to any kind of UN force operating there.

The Secretary-General expressed concern over reports that Khartoum has demanded that the African Union (AU) force in Darfur leave by the end of the month unless it agrees to certain conditions, saying it “leaves hanging in the air the question of what happens to the internally displaced people and the people who are in need of help in Darfur.”

UN humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) estimate they are giving support to up to three million people in Darfur and neighbouring Chad as a result of the conflict that has raged on Sudan’s impoverished and remote western flank since 2003.

“If we have to leave because of lack of security, lack of access to the people, then what happens?” Mr. Annan asked. “The Government will have to assume responsibility for doing this and, if it doesn’t succeed, it will have lots of questions to answer to the rest of the world.”

The Security Council has postponed a meeting on Darfur scheduled for this Friday until next Monday to allow the Secretary-General, who is currently touring the Middle East, to return to UN Headquarters in New York and attend.

Adamantios Vassilakis, Ambassador of Greece, which holds the Council presidency for September, told reporters today that the Council has sent invitations to the Sudanese Government, the League of Arab States and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to dispatch high-level representatives for the meeting.

Mr. Vassilakis said he has received no response yet from the Sudanese Government on whether they would attend the Council meeting.

In a separate development, the existing UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) has condemned the killing of another NGO staffer in Darfur, the latest in a string of aid workers to have been murdered in the region during the past two months.

The victim was a nurse working for the International Rescue Committee. During the attack, the health centre where the nurse worked was looted, as was a pharmacy and guesthouse managed by the NGO.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Manuel da Silva condemned the killing and voiced alarm at the attack on the clinic.

“The targeting and looting of a humanitarian facility such as a medical centre is completely unacceptable. The neutrality and essential services provided by such facilities must be recognized by all.”

In North Darfur, a team from the AU’s mission in the region was held up by 12 armed men while they attempted to escort women who were carrying firewood. The armed men took away weapons and ammunition, as well as an AU vehicle.

UNMIS reports that the entire region remains volatile, but clashes have been particularly frequent in North Darfur between the parties that signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) in May and those rebel groups that did not.