ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN SUDAN, 27-29 MAY
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Khartoum, Sudan, for a three-day visit on Friday, 27 May, from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On arrival, he told the waiting press that he expected that, after his visits to Darfur and the south, he would “have a better sense, a first hand impression, of what is going on in the country”.
His first official meeting on Friday was with the Sudanese Foreign Minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After the meeting, the two held a joint press encounter, and the Secretary-General told reporters that he was encouraged that the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was moving forward. He also said the two of them discussed the need to do everything possible to bring security to Darfur and to ensure that the farmers can go back to their land, to plant, cultivate and harvest their crops.
He also said that he would be going to Darfur to see the situation for himself, and added that the Foreign Minister assured him that the Sudanese Government would do everything to facilitate the work of the humanitarian community in the region.
He drew attention to the funding shortages in the United Nations’s humanitarian programme in the south, in response to a question about food shortages in southern Sudan, saying that it is a shame that in the south we have a peace agreement, but we don’t have the resources required. It looks like governments have shifted support they used to give to the south to Darfur. What was needed were additional resources to cover both crises, he said.
Earlier on Friday, he had a working lunch hosted by his Special Representative to Sudan, Jan Pronk, and with senior United Nations officials based in Khartoum. He also had a “Town Hall” style meeting with United Nations staff.
Accompanying the Secretary-General to Sudan were three heads of the non-governmental organizations, George Rupp of the International Rescue Committee, Tom Arnold of Concern and Ken Bacon of Refugees International. He held a meeting with them upon arrival.
The Secretary-General on Saturday travelled to Nyala, in south Darfur, where he visited a camp for more than 100,000 people displaced by attacks on their villages and towns, and to a town where residents have recently begun to return under the protection of the African Union force deployed there.
He described what he had seen during his trip to Darfur as “heart-wrenching” in an airport press encounter upon returning to Khartoum from Darfur late Saturday afternoon.
In Nyala, tens of thousands of people lined both sides of the road leading to Kalma camp to greet the Secretary-General. Women ululated, children smiled and waved and men held up banners. One read “Yes, yes for talk, war criminal people to ICC” (International Criminal Court) and “Welcome, no life without protection.”
At Kalma camp, home to more than 100,000 forced to flee their homes and which was the scene of recent disturbances that resulted in limited humanitarian access, Mr. Annan heard first-hand accounts of continued insecurity in the camps and rapes of women and girls.
One camp leader, who spoke of recent attacks in the camp resulting in deaths, appealed that he not be detained after he had spoken. The Secretary-General immediately sought the assurance from a Sudanese minister travelling with him to Darfur, and received it.
He then travelled by helicopter to the town of Labado, also in south Darfur, which was abandoned by its 60,000 inhabitants when it was attacked last December. Six months later, some 30,000 people have returned to the levelled town to restart their lives.
The Secretary-General heard a briefing from the African Union commander in Labado who has provided forces to ensure security for the returnees. The great need to improve security was the dominant theme in discussions there, as it was in Kalma Camp.
The Secretary-General walked around the devastated town strewn with the remains of burnt and gutted mud huts. One woman standing in front of a roofless mud hut, hoping to restart her life in Labado, talked about the attack that forced her family to flee and she said she still lived in fear.
Back in Nyala, he had a meeting with Haj Aba El-Manna Idriss, the Wali, or governor, of south Darfur. Before departing for Khartoum, the two held a brief press encounter at Nyala airport, during which the Secretary-General welcomed the Wali’s reconciliation efforts in bringing the tribes together and working with them so they can live in harmony. He also encouraged his efforts to work with the African Union troops and the police to ensure security for internally displaced persons.
On Sunday, the Secretary-General made a day trip from Khartoum to southern Sudan, where he made good on a promise to visit southern Sudan once the comprehensive peace agreement was concluded to end years of war between the north and south.
The more than three-hour air journey to the headquarters of Chairman John Garang of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) was punctuated by a stopover in Juba, where he was met at the airport by the Wali, or governor, of the Bahr Al Jebel region and UN peacekeepers who have started to deploy in Sudan to help implement the peace agreement.
In a brief press encounter at Juba airport, the Secretary-General said the purpose of his visit to south Sudan was to discuss the agreement’s implementation with leaders of the region and also to discuss ways to bring additional resources for humanitarian assistance needed there.
John Garang met the Secretary-General at the airport in Rumbek, where hundreds of enthusiastic supporters, including boys who climbed the only tree in the vicinity to watch the event, greeted him.
There he was presented with a cow -- a gift given in honour of an important guest. It was the first of many presented to him during his stay in the southern town. Traditionally, a bull is slaughtered in the presence of the guest of honour, but the Secretary-General told the crowd, “I am grateful for the warm welcome you have extended to me, for the gifts that Dr. Garang gave me this morning. I accept these cattle and I would urge your leaders to keep them for me until that proper time when I would ask that they be slaughtered to feed the widows and children who have suffered so much through this conflict.”
He also told the crowd that his visit to Rumbek was to keep a promise to visit southern Sudan when there was peace.
“It is the promise of peace that has brought me and all those who are with me here. I told Dr. Garang some time ago, many months ago, that I will come when there is peace and I kept my word”, he said. “And he and you, and all the Sudanese, have to keep their part of the bargain by making the peace agreement hold and stabilizing it.”
He then had a meeting with Garang at his residence. He and Garang discussed the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended years of war between north and south and the Secretary-General heard about the acute humanitarian needs in southern Sudan, which is experiencing a surge in unplanned voluntary returns of refugees from abroad.
Later, in remarks addressed to members of the National Constitutional Review Commission, the Secretary-General noted the humanitarian needs of the region and said he would redouble his efforts to press the international community to make good on their pledges of humanitarian assistance. “Cash today is better than cash tomorrow”, he said, adding “and it can save lots of lives.”
In those remarks, he said that a political settlement in southern Sudan would help achieve a resolution to the Darfur conflict. “Your work is proving that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is a road map to sustainable peace”, he said. “This will give hope to the people of Darfur.”
Delegates to the Commission will debate and review the draft Interim National Constitution, an effort considered essential to establishing the basis for the Government of National Unity and for the other institutions critical to the interim period. The Secretary-General urged those present to complete their work in a timely manner. “The momentum of the peace process depends on it”, he said.
He also appealed for maintaining the “impressive array of human rights provisions” in the draft constitution.
On the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS), which was created in response to the peace agreement, he said. “The United Nations will work with you until this peace has firmly taken root”, he told those present, urging them to join forces to “build a new Sudan, free of conflict and fear and full of hope and prosperity.” (See press release SG/SM/9897.)
A torrential downpour started just after the Secretary-General and Garang walked on a muddy road lined with thousands of cheering Sudanese on the way to the Garang residence. Rain is considered a sign of a blessing when it happens when there is a visitor, Garang later explained.
Before leaving Rumbek, he met briefly with the Minister for Development Cooperation for Luxembourg, Jean-Louis Schiltz, who was also in town. The Secretary-General mentioned the need for more resources for southern Sudan.
A sandstorm in Khartoum late in the day on Sunday forced the Secretary-General to cancel his scheduled return to the Sudanese capital for a meeting with the Sudanese President. Instead, his plane was rerouted to Addis Ababa. He boarded a plane there for New York, where he arrived on Monday morning, 30 May.