UN: Darfur Peace Process Lacks Commitment
The top United Nations peacekeeping official has
stressed that ending the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region
will require greater commitment and efforts by the parties
involved, lamenting that the peace process has been moving
very slowly.
Addressing the summit meeting of the
African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council yesterday,
Alain Le Roy said that the joint AU-UN mediation effort
faces “a number of seemingly intractable challenges,
including and perhaps above all, the absence of a sustained
commitment from the parties to discuss and then deliver
progress on the issues of concern to the people of
Darfur.
“The result is a process that has moved at a
very slow pace and justifiable impatience on all sides,”
he told the gathering in Abuja, Nigeria.
The efforts
by the UN and AU to resolve the long-running conflict in
Darfur between the Sudanese Government and the region’s
armed movements have been led by the joint Chief Mediator,
Djibril Bassolé, and his team, and sponsored by the
Government of Qatar.
Fighting has raged across the western Sudanese region since 2003, pitting the rebel movements against Government forces and allied Janjaweed militiamen. All sides stand accused of human rights abuses and an estimated 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur over the past six years and another 2.7 million people forced to leave their homes.
The efforts of mediators have been
hampered by the fragmentation of the rebel movements into
many different, smaller groups, making it harder for them to
adopt a unified position during any negotiations.
In
February, representatives of the Justice and Equality
Movement (JEM) signed the Doha Goodwill Agreement with the
Sudanese Government in an initial step designed to build
momentum towards an enduring peace pact.
Former South
African president Thabo Mbeki and the AU High-Level Panel on
Darfur have prepared a report articulating a vision that
sees a peaceful Darfur taking its rightful place within a
peaceful Sudan.
“We are confident that a number of
proposals made by the report will give a boost to the
efforts of the Joint Chief Mediator and his team, and their
colleagues in the Qatari Government, as they continue the
painstaking work of steering a peace process towards a
tangible result,” stated Mr. Le Roy.
He added that,
in Darfur, concessions are necessary from the rebel
movements, as well as the two partners in the Government of
National Unity.
“Let us work with them closely and
encourage them to transcend conflict through serious
confidence-building measures, and agreements that address
the legitimate concerns of the people of Darfur,” said the
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping
Operations.
Mr. Le Roy pointed out that a political
agreement for Darfur is also necessary in light of the
national elections scheduled for April 2010.
“If
the conditions are put in place, the elections will provide
a chance for the displaced and disenfranchised people of
Darfur to articulate their needs and concerns. We must work
with the people and the Government of Sudan to ensure they
seize this opportunity,” he said.
Following his stop
in Abuja, Mr. Le Roy will also visit peacekeeping missions
in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where he will
assess security in the strife-torn east and discuss the
extension of state authority and institution-building, and
Burundi, where he will see first-hand how the UN integrated
mission is working.
ENDS