05/31/2005

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan visited Sudan over the Memorial Day weekend to press for an end of the fighting and human rights violations in Darfur and survey progress under an agreement that ended a 21-year civil war in south Sudan.  Three representatives of humanitarian agencies—Ken Bacon, the president of Refugees International, Tom Arnold, the CEO of Concern Worldwide, and George Rupp, the president of the International Rescue Committee—traveled with him.  They reported on the trip to other agencies, and that report follows:

We are writing to report on our whistle-stop tour of Sudan with Kofi Annan.  The Secretary General spent a day in Khartoum, meeting with the UN staff and government officials, a day in Darfur, where he visited the Kalma Camp in Nyala and Labado, and a day in Rumbek in southern Sudan.  Whatever the frustrations of trying to bring peace to Darfur, negotiating with the government in Khartoum, and funding development in south Sudan, Annan had to be buoyed by huge crowds chanting “Welcome, Welcome, Kofi Annan” in both Arabic and English.

He was both encouraged and discouraged by the trip.  On the plus side, he left with a sense that the government wants to end the war in Darfur and that implementation of the peace agreement between north and south Sudan is on track.  On the minus side, he is worried that neither Darfur nor the south are getting the resources they need.  Despite the pledges at the recent conference of donors in Oslo, he expressed concern that the north-south peace agreement is not getting proper funding, in part because money is going to Darfur.  In fact, aid to south Sudan is lower than it was before the Naivasha Accords were signed, in effect penalizing the south for making peace. He focused on two continuing problems in Darfur--harassment of humanitarian workers and rape.  The detention in Khartoum by the head of MSF-Holland a day after Kofi Annan left the country was both an affront to the Secretary General and a sign of the government’s harassment and interference, as well as its unwillingness to deal with the rape problem.

Annan came to Khartoum after an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa, where the AU vowed to increase the size of the force in Darfur and where NATO agreed to provide logistical, transportation, communications and other support that won’t require NATO boots on the ground.  This expansion will cost $500 million, and some $200 million, including $134 million by Canada, was pledged at the conference.  He stressed the urgent need for the AU and donor countries to work together to expand the force as quickly as possible.  Security in Darfur remains the biggest challenge; while the AU is providing tangible security in Labado and other places, it is too small to provide enough security.  He was pleased that Norway had pledged to provide 30 mobile police stations so that AU police can provide enhanced security in camps for internally displaced.

Throughout the trip, Annan focused on the inter-relationship of three major issues—security, political progress and humanitarian support.  In Darfur, he stressed repeatedly the need for more security, both as a precondition for political settlement and for needed expansions in the delivery of humanitarian aid.

On the security issue, he stressed four points:

• The need for rapid expansion of AMIS
• The need for an expanded mandate for the AU force to cover the protection of civilians
• The importance of dealing with the rape and gender-based violence issue. Although some Janjaweed have been arrested for rape, the government is still following a “shoot the messenger” approach that fails to acknowledge the scope of the problem.
• The need for more human rights monitors throughout Darfur.