Sudan has suspended the work of a UN mission in its violent
Darfur region after accusing the world body of transporting a rebel
leader who opposes a recent peace deal, a Sudanese official said
Sunday.
The United Nations co-ordinates one of the world's largest aid
operations in Darfur and monitors the health, malnutrition and
human rights situation in a region the size of France.
"The suspension applies for all of Darfur and this will continue
until we get an explanation," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jamal
Ibrahim.
He said the ban was imposed because a UN helicopter had moved
rebel leader Suleiman Adam Jamous, who rejects a peace deal signed
on May 5 without consulting the government in Khartoum.
It excludes two bodies affiliated to the UN mission, the World
Food Program and the UN children's agency (UNICEF), Ibrahim
said.
UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said the mission had not received
any formal communication from the government. "We have also seen
the media reports but we have not received any formal and official
confirmation of this from the government of Sudan," she said. She
declined to comment on whether the United Nations had moved rebel
leader Jamous in a helicopter.
In recent months UN relations with the Sudan Government has been
strained as Khartoum has fiercely resisted international pressure
for a UN takeover of the struggling African Union mission
monitoring a shaky truce in Darfur.
Only one of three rebel factions negotiating in the Nigerian
capital Abuja signed the African Union-mediated deal and tens of
thousands in Darfur have demonstrated, at times violently, against
it.
They say it does not meet their basic demands of proper
compensation for war victims or enough political posts and the
rebels want to monitor the disarmament of pro-government militias,
known locally as Janjaweed.
Elderly Jamous was the humanitarian coordinator for the main
rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) before it split in November last
year. He was the main contact for the more than 14,000 aid workers
in the region.
"He was picked up by the UN helicopter between el-Fasher and
Musbat," Ibrahim said, referring to areas in North
Darfur.
(China Daily June 26, 2006)
