UN: POLITICAL PROCESS IN DARFUR REACHES DEADLOCK
PanARMENIAN.Net
23.04.2008 13:38 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Five years after fighting first erupted in Darfur
between Sudanese Government forces and rebel groups, the world has
still not found a durable solution to the suffering of millions of
people in the region, the United Nations humanitarian chief told the
Security Council today, warning the situation will only deteriorate
unless urgent measures are taken.
John Holmes, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs,
told a Council meeting that he was saddened and angry to inform them
that the situation inside Darfur had only worsened in the past 12
months, despite the efforts of the international community.
"We continue to see the goalposts receding, to the point where
peace in Darfur seems further away today than ever," he said in a
statement. "Further progress in the deployment of UNAMID [the hybrid
UN-African Union peacekeeping force], equipped to protect civilians
and improve security, will help.
"But only an end to all violence and concrete steps towards a political
settlement will make the fundamental difference needed, as the rebel
movements themselves above all need to recognize. Otherwise the reality
is that the people of Darfur face a continued steady deterioration
of their conditions of life and their chances of lasting recovery."
Mr. Holmes said as many as 300,000 people are now estimated to
have died in Darfur since early 2003, when rebels began fighting
Government forces and allied militiamen. This figure includes deaths
from disease, malnutrition and reduced life expectancy, as well as
from direct combat.
Aside from the death toll, more than 2.7 million Darfurians have been
displaced by the fighting, the vast majority still living within the
arid region on Sudan’s western flank. Around 260,000 refugees have
had to flee to the east of neighboring Chad.
In his briefing to the Council, Rodolphe Adada, the AU-UN Joint
Special Representative for Darfur, said it was disturbing that while
the region has remained near the top of the international agenda,
this attention had not been matched with the necessary action to
provide UNAMID with the means to accomplish the tasks assigned to it.
The Council authorized the deployment of UNAMID last year to take
over from an under-resourced AU force, and the operation began work at
the start of this year. But so far only around 10,000 of the roughly
26,000 uniformed personnel have been deployed.
Speaking to reporters outside the Council, Mr. Adada said that up
to 80 per cent of the entire UNAMID force could be deployed by the
end of this year if donor countries do more to help out, whether by
providing troops or equipment.
He called on the Council to redouble its efforts to assist the mission
and he also read out an update on efforts to broker a political
settlement by the UN and AU envoys to the peace process, Jan Eliasson
and Salim Ahmed Salim.
Mr. Adada said logistical challenges are one of the biggest problems,
with the mission lacking the infrastructure at the moment to house
the thousands of staff expected at full deployment.
He said UN and AU officials were working hard to try to accelerate
deployment and to make the most of the available resources – including
fresh water – in the parched and landlocked region, the UN News
Center reports.