Top UN envoy details lack of progress in Darfur crisis
UNITED NATIONS -- The top UN envoy to Sudan said yesterday that the Sudanese government has failed to improve security for the embattled people of Darfur or to bring to justice the perpetrators of atrocities during the 19-month conflict.
Jan Pronk accused the government and rebels of continuing to violate an April cease-fire -- with the army attacking, sometimes with helicopter gunships, and the rebels often directing their fire at police. But "there are signs of improvement on the political front," he said.
In a briefing to the UN Security Council on two reports by Secretary General Kofi Annan, Pronk called for a beefed-up African Union force with a greatly expanded mandate "in the coming weeks."
"It can help to protect the people by being present over a wide area, by being seen, by acting as a deterrent," he said. The conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur has killed more than 50,000 people and forced 1.4 million to flee.
He warned that the failure to resolve it "could create the conditions for a widening regional or even global confrontation," and he called for progress in separate political talks this month on Darfur and on ending the 21-year civil war in southern Sudan.
Sudan's Arab-dominated government is accused of mobilizing Arab tribal fighters for attacks on Darfur's villagers in retaliation for uprisings launched by two non-Arab Darfur rebel movements in February 2003. Sudan denies any responsibility and says it has disarmed some of the Arab militiamen, known as Janjaweed.
Calling for "a comprehensive political solution" in Sudan, Pronk said agreements already negotiated to resolve the war in the south should be used as the basis to solve conflicts in Darfur and elsewhere in the country.
He urged the international community to put pressure on Sudan to change its policies and to bring into the political process rebel movements, tribal leaders, opposition groups, civil society, and women's groups.
"Aim not at regime change, but at regime character change," Pronk told the 15-member council and an audience from many nations.
In his report on Darfur, the secretary general said the government made "no further progress" in September in key areas essential to restoring security, including implementing a cease-fire, stopping attacks on civilians, disarming militias, and persecuting the perpetrators of atrocities. "It is clear that the cease-fire is not holding in many parts of Darfur," he said.
Annan also said government efforts in August to improve security in camps where Sudanese have taken refuge, to deploy additional police, and to lift restrictions to humanitarian relief had "not been reversed" in September.
But this was "not good enough," Pronk told the council.
"There was no systematic improvement of people's security and no progress on ending impunity," he said. "In September, on security, . . . there were still breaches of the cease-fire from both sides, attacks and counterattacks, revenge and retaliation. . . . [and] the government still fails to bring the perpetrators of atrocities to justice."
Sudan's UN ambassador, Elfatih Mohamed Erwa, called Annan's assessment, reiterated by Pronk, "a balanced one."
Erwa said the government is still committed," but the situation "didn't improve because there were certain security problems."
