Council Members Hold Talks With Sudan's President

Security Council Members Hold Talks With Sudan’s President in Khartoum

New York, Jun 6 2006 6:00PM

Arriving in Sudan, a delegation from the Security Council today held meetings with top government officials, the senior United Nations envoy there and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as part of its bid to explore how best to help the people of Africa’s largest country.

The 15 members of the Council delegation, led by British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, met with President Omar al-Bashir and other senior Sudanese Government leaders, as well as members of Parliament, a spokesman for the world body reported today.

The Council mission, which is slated to visit the troubled Darfur region and cross the border to Chad where hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees are living in camps, began its first day today with a briefing in Khartoum by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative Jan Pronk and his deputies at the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).

The Council members also met with a group of NGOs, spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York, adding that they are also expected to meet with opposition party leaders.

In Khartoum, Mr. Jones Parry said the mission was there to listen to the Government of Sudan and all the parties on how the UN, and specifically the Security Council, can support the African Union and assist the country’s people. The AU currently has a 7,000-strong mission in Sudan known by the acronym AMIS which initially will be responsible for helping to implement a peace accord signed by the Government and the main Darfur rebels.

Two smaller rebel groups have so far refused to sign the accord, and the Government has not yet agreed to a UN peacekeeping operation for Darfur, where fighting between the Government, pro-Government militias and rebels have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced some 2 million others amid charges of the massacre of civilians, rape and other atrocities.

All 15 Security Council member countries are represented on the mission, the majority of them at the level of ambassador.

ENDS

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