Ian Collard, UK Mission in Darfur

On 3 and 4 June, the UN Security Council visited Juba and Khartoum.  The Council met with the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, Sudan's Foreign Minister, Deng Alor (both of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement), and separately with each of President Bashir and his principal adviser, Dr. Nafie (both of the National Congress Party). The mission discussed the situation in Darfur and the North-South Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).  

North-South

The Council pressed the two main parties in the unity government – the SPLM (of the South) and NCP (of the North) – to keep to their commitments to implement the CPA.  In particular, the mission expressed concern at the recent violence in Abyei, and insisted that both sides should refrain from conflict. The delegation was encouraged by the fact that the parties had agreed to accept the free movement of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in Abyei.  

However, as noted by the UK, slow progress gave the international community reason to be concerned, not least as there were suspicions about the forced displacement of the town’s 70,000 inhabitants. We hoped both sides would seek the much-needed compromises to allow the CPA to move forward.

International Criminal Court

The Council expressed its concern at Sudan's non-compliance with resolution 1593, in particular its failure to hand over the two Sudanese indictees to the International Criminal Court (ICC).  President Bashir informed the Council that Sudan would not send any of its nationals to the ICC, to which it was not a party.

The Council made clear that while Sudan was not an ICC party, it was obliged as a UN Member State to comply with the requirements of resolution 1593.

As a result of the meeting with the Sudanese representatives, the Security Council adopted a Presidential Statement on 16 June, urging Sudan to co-operate fully with the ICC in accordance with Security Council resolution 1593.

Darfur

In addition to discussions of Darfur in Juba and Khartoum, on 5 June the Council visited El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, where they received a briefing by the leadership of the hybrid UN-African Union Mission, UNAMID. Rodolphe Adada, the UN-AU Joint Special Representative for Darfur, told the Council, “The world has placed its confidence in this mission. It will wither away if we are not able to deliver.”

The delegation also visited the Zam Zam Camp for internally displaced persons, and met with camp representatives who described life there and gave an assessment of their continuing needs, in particular a solution to the poor security situation. The Council delegation met with the representatives of UN and international relief agencies, who discussed the challenges in delivering aid to Darfur – particularly security and bureaucratic difficulties –  ways to respond to those challenges, and the adverse effect the challenges were having.  Before leaving El Fasher, the Council mission met with the Wali (or governor) of North Darfur, who described his perception of the state of affairs of the Darfur situation.

The Council emphasised with the local and national governments the importance of providing protection to UN and humanitarian convoys in Darfur, and to taking new procedural and logistical steps to help facilitate the operations of international actors in Darfur.  The Government agreed to increase its efforts towards those goals. The Council also emphasised the importance of pressing ahead with the Darfur peace process. President Bashir welcomed the proposed creation of the position of Chief Mediator as outlined in the Secretary-General's latest report on Darfur.