NAIROBI, 3 January (IRIN) - The Sudanese government's Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and "national and foreign organisations" on Wednesday began an assessment of the humanitarian requirements of the Nuba Mountains region of Southern Kordofan State, south-central Sudan, the official Sudan News Agency reported.
The parties involved also started a humanitarian assessment in the Lagawa, or Al-Lagowa, area (11.24 N 29.08 E), which is on the border of West and Southern Kordofan, west of the Nuba Mountains, it quoted HAC's Director of Emergency Administration, Khalid Faraj, as saying. 
The US peace envoy, John Danforth, in November included humanitarian access to the Nuba Mountains region as one of four confidence-building measures he proposed to the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). 
The government of Sudan and the SPLM/A later agreed on an internationally monitored cease-fire to cover the Nuba region, and on "military stand-downs" to implement a US-proposed initiative to eradicate polio. 
The two parties also agreed to the immediate dispatch of a relief and rehabilitation assessment mission to the Nuba Mountains, the findings of which would serve as the basis for the development of a relief and rehabilitation programme, the US reported in mid-December. 
That assessment, which got under way on Wednesday, is due to cover the fields of agriculture, animal resources, health, education, water, roads and food needs, prior to the preparation of rehabilitation and development plans for the areas involved, according to Faraj.
Five technical teams started their missions on Wednesday in Kadugli (11.01 N 29.43 E); Dilling (12.03 N 29.39 E); Hayban (11.13 N 30.31 E); Rashad (11.51 N 31.04 E); Abu-Jebaiha, or Abu Jubayhah (11.27 N 31.14 E); and Talodi or Talawdi (10.38 N 30.23 E), he said. These are all government-held areas in the Nuba Mountains region.
The United Nations was also due to started surveying rebel-held of the Nuba region, SUNA quoted Faraj as saying.
That multi-agency and multi-sectoral effort, which is also to include nongovernmental organisations, is due to start on 8 January and run until 15 January, UN sources told IRIN on Thursday.
Assessment team members would be analysing health and nutritional needs, water and environmental sanitation, education and social structures protection, as well as food security, they said. 
In addressing food security, the mission would be looking at emergency food needs, but also the need for agricultural and fisheries support to increase the quantity and quality of household food availability, UN officials added.    
There are an estimated 158,000 people in need of emergency food assistance in the Nuba Mountains, according to the USAID. [See: http://www.usaid.gov/hum_response/ofda/] 
It is hoped that the government and UN will agree on a joint report and proposals for an integrated humanitarian assistance package for both government- and rebel-held areas by 21 January, according to humanitarian sources.

Khartoum calls on Washington not to fund NDA

NAIROBI, 2 January (IRIN) - The Sudanese government has asked the United States of America to cancel financial assistance earmarked for the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the name of maintaining its neutrality on the war in the country, Sudanese media and international news agencies reported this week.
The US State Department reached agreement on a proposal to deliver some US $3 million in logistical support for the NDA (a coalition of northern political parties and southern groups, including the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, SPLM/A), opposed to the government) back in May, the Washington Post newspaper reported on 25 May.    
The US administration of George W. Bush [which regards Sudan as "a military dictatorship with pro-government parliament"] would provide funding for office space, radios, staff and training to strengthen the NDA's ability to engage in peace negotiations with the government, it said, citing government sources. 
The $3 million support, initially approved by the Clinton administration, was separate from the $10 million in assistance the US Congress approved in 2000 for the SPLM/A, the report added.
"This [proposed] financial assistance casts doubt on the neutrality of the US administration towards the parties in dispute in Sudan," AFP news agency (citing the Sudanese daily Al-Ra'y al-Amm) quoted presidential peace adviser Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani as saying. 
"The assistance would possibly increase the factors of war and confrontation" in the country, where an estimated two million people had died from war-related events since 1983, the Associated Press agency quoted Atabani as saying.
On 6 September, President Bush appointed former Senator John Danforth as his special envoy for peace in Sudan, as part of a renewed effort to find peace and promote development in the country.
During a visit to Sudan in November, Danforth presented four proposals to the government and SPLM/A as "tests of good faith" on their interest in peace, which would also improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance to vulnerable populations.
The proposals cover: humanitarian access to the Nuba Mountains; a cessation of bombing and artillery attacks on civilians; zones of tranquillity and times of tranquillity in which humanitarian assistance can be offered, especially for immunisations; and an end to the taking of slaves.
Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir said at the weekend that his government was "extremely enthusiastic" about renewed American peace efforts, but that the four confidence-building measures proposed were "not basic issues [for ending the war], but... questions in which US public opinion is interested".
Danforth is due to return to Sudan this month to gauge progress on the government and the SPLM/A's commitment to and implementation of his four proposals.

Rebel alarm at Khartoum's reported purchase of new MiGs

NAIROBI, 31 December (IRIN) - The Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) on Saturday expressed its "deep concern" over reports that a Russian firm was selling MiG-29 jet fighters to the government of Sudan, saying it was obvious that Khartoum was using oil revenues to purchase these advanced combat aircraft to escalate the war in Sudan.
Agreement on a deal between the government of Sudan and the Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG (RSKMiG) was sealed on 25 December, according to the Sudanese rebel movement, which cited the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in the Russian capital, Moscow, as its source.
"Reliable sources" in Khartoum revealed that some of those aircraft had already been delivered, and were in El-Obeid (Al-Ubayyid), Northern Kordofan State (in central Sudan), close to the oilfields in southern Sudan, according to the SPLM/A spokesman, Samson Kwaje.
He claimed that the new MiGs would "undoubtedly be used to attack with impunity civilian targets, including markets, hospitals, schools, churches, internally displaced camps, cattle camps, villages and humanitarian facilities on the pretext that these are military targets".
The rebel spokesman strongly condemned Russia "not only for selling these sophisticated fighter aircraft to a government that is committed to killing its people but also for participating in oil exploration and exploitation in Sudan".
In the past two months, in particular, Russia and Sudan have been engaged in high-level bilateral talks intended to bolster economic, trade and other bilateral ties.
The Russian embassy in Khartoum said in late November that the two states were addressing oil exploration in Sudan, the participation of Russian companies in mapping out the proposed Merowe dam and hydropower plant on the River Nile (18.29N 31.49E), and an "agreement in aviation services", among other issues, the official Sudan News Agency reported.
Diplomatic sources also said at the time that the parties could also address military-technical cooperation between Moscow and Khartoum, recalling that "all restrictions in this sphere have been lifted from Sudan", the Russian news agency Interfax reported on 26 November, the day before the arrival in Russia of Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il.
In Saturday's statement, Kwaje also condemned other oil companies (notably Talisman Energy of Canada, Petronas of Malaysia, China National Petroleum Corpn, Lundin Petroleum of Sweden, OMV AG of Austria and Russia's Slavneft, Rosneft and Tatneft) for what, he said, was "providing the government of Sudan with oil revenues to purchase aircraft fighters and to build large-scale military facilities that are being used to exterminate our people".
Human rights and religious groups have repeatedly alleged that there is a close relationship between the development of oil reserves in Sudan and human rights abuses in oil-rich areas, including the mass displacement of civilians.
The NGO Christian Aid, as a key member of a coalition of over 60 European NGOs campaigning on oil in Sudan, on 10 August reiterated its call for a suspension of oil operations in the country, and a temporary ban on European investment in the Sudanese oil industry.

"The only way for oil companies to prevent being implicated in furtherhuman rights abuses in southern Sudan is to suspend oil operations until ajust and lasting peace settlement has been reached," it stated. 
For more details, go to <a Href =http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=10526
target="_blank">www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=10526</a>
International oil companies in Sudan were "knowingly or unknowingly" involved in a government counter-insurgency strategy that involved the forced displacement of local people from oil concession areas, according to the report of an independent fact-finding mission in October. 
For more details, go to <a href=http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=12409 target="_blank">www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=12409</a>
The Russian government must know that supplying these MiGs would "complicate the search for peace by both the IGAD [Inter-Governmental Authority on Development] member states and the government of the USA", the SPLM/A spokesman stated. 
"The flow of oil revenues and consequent purchase of sophisticated weaponry these revenues will make the Khartoum regime intransigent and not negotiate seriously with the SPLM for a just peace," Kwaje added.

US proposals "not the basic issues" – Bashir

NAIROBI, 31 December (IRIN) - The Sudanese government of President Umar Hasan al-Bashir is "extremely enthusiastic" about American peace efforts, but considers that four confidence-building measures proposed by the US peace envoy, John Danforth, are not "basic issues," AFP news agency reported on Saturday.
The four US proposals - on humanitarian access to the Nuba Mountains; a cessation of bombing and artillery attacks on civilians; zones of tranquillity and times of tranquillity in which humanitarian assistance can be offered, especially for immunisations; and an end to the taking of slaves - were "tests of good faith" for the government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, Danforth said after his mission to Sudan in November.
"All these are not basic issues [for ending the war], but are questions in which US public opinion is interested," Bashir told journalists in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, according to AFP.
The points put too much emphasis on the Nuba Mountains, in Southern
Kordofan, south-central Sudan, where Bashir claimed the rebels held only 5 percent of the territory, and were "not related to south Sudan, where the war has displaced millions of people", AFP quoted the Sudanese president as saying.
Claims about the existence of slavery in Sudan were "a hollow allegation", and that zones and times of tranquillity had long been applied and observed, he added. 
Bashir said the four proposals were an attempt by the US administration of George W. Bush to "neutralise" what he said was "a pressure camp... comprising the Christian right, Jewish and African-American lobbies", the report added.
After the US put its proposals, the government of Sudan and the SPLM/A agreed on an internationally monitored cease-fire to cover the Nuba region, and on "military stand-downs" to implement a US-proposed initiative to eradicate polio, the US reported in mid-December.
The two parties also agreed to the immediate dispatch of a relief and rehabilitation assessment mission to the Nuba Mountains, the findings of which would serve as the basis for the development of a relief and rehabilitation programme, Washington stated.
There are an estimated 158,000 people in need of emergency food assistance in the Nubah Mountains, according to the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Assessments have also identified depleted livestock assets and a chronic lack of agricultural inputs.
"It remains to be seen whether the parties' actions will reflect the agreements... but we are encouraged by the progress that has been achieved," Roger Winter, director of the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), told United Nations officials and donor representatives in Geneva, Switzerland.
Danforth is leading a US effort to promote humanitarian access and development in Sudan as an end in themselves and as a tool for renewed peace efforts. He is scheduled to return to Sudan in January to gauge progress on the government and the SPLM/A's commitment to and implementation of these proposals.
In its latest situation report on Sudan, USAID reiterated that it was a priority for 2002 to increase multi-sectoral emergency assistance to war-affected populations, especially in underserved geographic areas, including the Nuba Mountains but also Upper Nile, Southern Blue Nile and eastern Sudan. A US-proposed mission to assess humanitarian needs for people living in the Nuba region is due before the end of December. The mission would cover all government-controlled and rebel-held areas of the Nubas, and would include appraisals of food, health, and education needs, the Sudanese Al-Ayyam newspaper quoted Sulaf al-Din Salih, Commissioner-General of the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission, as saying. According to the latest Sudan update from USAID, released on 10 December, programme priorities for next year also include: increased support for the return of refugees and internally displaced persons; continuing support for drought and flood recovery programmes in northern Sudan; and quick response to negotiated humanitarian access agreements.

Bahr al-Ghazal IDPs face food insecurity

NAIROBI, 28 December (IRIN) - Food availability and access are good in most secure locations of southern Sudan after recent harvests but insecurity and its consequences are limiting access to most of the available food options in parts of Bahr al-Ghazal Region, according to the latest update from the Famine Early Warning System Network.
Western Equatoria continued to enjoy relative food security and crop surpluses had lead to declining cereal prices, but that was in stark contrast to other areas, most notably in Bahr al-Ghazal, where prices remained extremely high, according to the USAID- and WFP-supported FEWS Net.
These disparities highlighted poor market linkages, serious variations in cereal availability and the existence of wealthy entrepreneurial networks, such that finding ways to move food from the food-surplus area of Western Equatoria to deficit areas in other regions was "a major challenge," it added.
Continued insecurity [as a result of fighting between the government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA)] and intensified bombing by the government was "precluding or limiting access to the various local markets and other food sources in parts of Bahr al-Ghazal," FEWS Net reported.
The World Food Programme's Technical Support Unit (TSU) estimated that, by mid-November, there were 16,000 new internally-displaced people (IDPs) in Awoda, Raga County, Western Bahr al-Ghazal, it stated. This was as a result of the government's recapture of Raga town [in mid-October] and of all other towns along the road from Raga to Wau [including Mangayat, Sop, Deim Zubeir, Yabulu and Boro], it said. 
The IDPs would remain food insecure and to need food and non-food assistance, the report added.  
Awoda, hosting 16,000 IDPs from Raga, had been too insecure to allow WFP access as a result of troop movements along the road between Raga and the railway line but the agency managed a rapid assessment on 21 November, it stated in its newly-released November report. 
WFP staff subsequently managed to get food relief to some 20,000 beneficiaries, including 10,000 newly-arrived IDPs [joining 6,000 who had previously fled Raga], in a "hit-and-run intervention," it said. 
The agency also continued its efforts to serve IDPs from Raga in Numatina [7.14 N 27.37 E], it added.    
It was "highly likely" that the government dry-season offensive would be intense, as it sought to capture strategic locations in Bahr al-Ghazal and Upper Nile, while the opposition might also to capture - or recapture - new areas, according to FEWS Net.
With no indications of insecurity abating, the likelihood was high of more population displacements, increased vulnerability to food security, disease and deteriorating livelihoods in 2002, it said.   
Population displacement, limited mobility and precluded access to food sources meant that "personal insecurity remains one of the major determinants of food insecurity in southern Sudan," it added.
Relief needs would continue to be required through 2002 for the displaced populations in Bahr al-Ghazal, Upper Nile and Lakes Regions, and also for populations affected by insecurity in Eastern Equatoria, FEWS Net reported.
The annual needs assessment currently being finalised by WFP would outline the estimates of food needs for 2002 in the different locations, it added.

Nuba assessment mission to start next week

A US-proposed mission to assess humanitarian needs for people living in the Nuba (Nubah) Mountains region of Southern Darfur, south-central Sudan, is expected to begin next week, the Al-Ayyam newspaper reported on Wednesday. The mission would cover all government-controlled and rebel-held areas of the Nuba Mountains, and would include appraisals of food, health, and education needs, Sulaf al-Din Salih, commissioner-general of the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) was quoted as saying by the newspaper. The findings of the assessment mission are expected to form the basis of a relief and rehabilitation programme for the Nuba Mountains region. 
[Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=18057&SelectRegion=East_Africa &SelectCountry=SUDAN]

UN adopts resolution on emergency assistance 

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has adopted a resolution proposed by Tanzania on behalf of the African group of countries on strengthening the coordination of emergency humanitarian and disaster relief assistance in Sudan. Despite a number of concerns raised about the resolution, notably by Canada and the European Union (EU), the Assembly adopted, by consensus and without a vote, draft resolution L.60 on emergency assistance to the Sudan. Under the terms of the resolution, the Assembly urged the international community to continue supporting national and international programmes of rehabilitation, voluntary resettlement and reintegration of returnees and internally displaced persons, as well as assistance to refugees.
[Full story: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=17926&SelectRegion=East_Africa
&SelectCountry=SUDAN]

Nuba assessment mission to start next week

A US-proposed mission to assess humanitarian needs for people living in the Nuba (Nuba) Mountains region of Southern Darfur, south-central Sudan, is expected to begin next week, the Al-Ayyam newspaper reported on Wednesday. 
The mission would cover all government-controlled and rebel-held areas of the Nuba Mountains, and would include appraisals of food, health, and education needs, Sulaf al-Din Salih, commissioner-general of the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
During meetings from 6 to 13 December with a US technical team led by Roger Winter, director of the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) agreed on the "immediate dispatch" of a relief and rehabilitation assessment mission to the Nuba Mountains, according to a statement from the US government.
The team - following up on the November mission to Sudan of the American peace envoy, John Danforth - had also enabled the SPLM/A and the Sudanese government to agree to negotiate an internationally monitored permanent cease-fire in the Nuba Mountains. 
Until the exact terms of such a cease-fire had been agreed, both sides had undertaken to observe and extend the current military stand-down in the Nuba Mountains, the US government said on 14 December. "The United States believes that strict adherence to the military stand-down will be essential to the success of efforts in the Nuba Mountains region," the statement said.
An initial four-week period of tranquillity in the Nuba Mountains - which expired on 9 December - had been negotiated by Danforth during his November mission, and had allowed the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to deliver over 2,000 mt of urgently needed emergency food aid to the Nuba people.  
The findings of the assessment mission are expected to form the basis of a relief and rehabilitation programme for the Nuba Mountains region.
"The United States Agency for International Development [USAID] and the United Nations will meet separately with the government and the SPLM/Nuba to negotiate and develop a comprehensive relief and rehabilitation programme for all civilians in the Nuba Mountains region, based on the findings of the assessment mission," the US statement said.
During meetings with the US technical team, SPLM/A and government representatives also agreed to implement additional military stand-downs in selected areas to allow implementation of a US-proposed institutive to eradicate polio.
In addition, the two sides made a "firm commitment" to avoid all bombardment of humanitarian targets, and to support a US-led investigation into the means of preventing slavery and forced abduction in Sudan, the US statement said.
Meanwhile, preliminary results of an HAC mission to assess food needs in both north and south Sudan for 2002 indicated an improvement when compared with the previous year, Al Ra'y al-Amm reported on Wednesday. The newspaper quoted a senior HAC official as saying the food gap for the coming year was "not alarming" and could be "bridged by the government through available resources".

The International Advisory Committee (IAC) on Sudan has issued a statement in which it underscored "the fundamental importance of a just and lasting peace for the resolution of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan".
It encouraged the warring parties to intensify their efforts towards this end, with appropriate support from the international community.
The purpose of the meeting - which brought together high-level representatives of donors, UN agencies involved in Sudan, international organisations and NGOs - was to examine ways of improving UN/donor coordination, identify joint approaches to humanitarian assistance programming, and to make the IAC more effective in supporting humanitarian assistance in the Sudan, including Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS).
The IAC called on the government of Sudan, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and all other parties to conflict in Sudan to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance throughout the country.
They could do this by ensuring, in particular: unimpeded access to all populations in need of humanitarian assistance, including cross-line movement of services and personnel; the rights of and protection for beneficiaries, including children; the safety and security of humanitarian assistance workers; and the wide promotion of humanitarian principles and human rights among themselves and their allies. 
The meeting issued "a strong call" to the Khartoum government, the SPLM/A and other parties to the conflict to adhere to the fundamental principle of free and unimpeded access to all those populations in need of assistance, with particular concern for areas of chronic denial such as western Upper Nile and Eastern Equatoria.
This "free and unimpeded access" was agreed by the government and SPLM/A - meeting with the United Nations in a Technical Committee on Humanitarian Assistance (TCHA) - in December 1999, but has never been delivered, according to relief officials.  
The broad agreement achieved at the IAC, plus "a high-level of buy-in from donor countries", was the main achievement at the Geneva meeting, and would give the UN "a stronger position at the table" at the next TCHA meeting, scheduled for January, humanitarian sources told IRIN on Wednesday.
That said, it was a completely different issue to implement agreements reached, and much would depend on the authority and influence of the government and SPLM/A delegates to the TCHA.
The IAC meeting welcomed the current momentum on access to the Nuba Mountains area of Southern Kordofan, south-central Sudan, hoping that it could still be built upon; and endorsed the American-proposed concept of regular, monthly Days of Tranquillity, as already agreed by Khartoum and the SPLM/A, "not only for polio surveillance, in the first instance, but for all humanitarian assistance".
After the meeting in Geneva on Friday, the IAC encouraged the UN to seek innovative and cost-effective mechanisms to achieve cross-line movement of supplies, services and personnel, especially by river or road rather than air for reasons of cost-effectiveness; and also to ensure risk-free delivery of relief in all areas, including consideration of the concept of "zones of peace".  
It was emphasised, however, that such measures must be considered as interim "and cannot replace the achievement of unimpeded and uninterrupted access".
While humanitarian space was among the key issues on the agenda of the IAC meeting, the press statement that emanated also emphasised the importance of establishing a humanitarian programme in Sudan with the capacity to deliver emergency relief to vulnerable and fragile communities, while at the same time promoting life-sustaining activities which would benefit these and other surrounding communities in the longer term.
The meeting also pointed to the importance of planning for future rehabilitation and reconstruction of war-affected areas. 
An important refrain in Geneva was that donors should be encouraged to move towards rehabilitation and even longer-term development in areas of Sudan where that was possible, without losing sight of the continuing requirement for emergency, life-saving assistance in other areas, according to humanitarian sources.
"There remain large areas in the war-ravaged southern part of the country which are not affected by war and which have therefore escaped the destruction of armed conflict. In such areas, the communities are coping and, to some extent, beginning to recover," the UN noted in its Consolidated Appeal for Sudan in November. 
It was these areas, and parts of central and northern Sudan, that participants at the Geneva meeting had in mind when they spoke of the need for longer-term humanitarian programming to break through "the chronic relief syndrome", sources told IRIN. 
The IAC press statement also noted that the safety and security of relief workers (as well as civilians) was "the fundamental responsibility of the warring parties", and encouraged the UN to continue "to challenge the presumption of impunity" which operates in many parts of Sudan.
In this regard, the IAC called on the parties to the conflict "to exercise control over the militia forces that they support and work with, and for which they are therefore responsible".
This was quite a big issue for humanitarian agencies in Sudan, especially those operating in Upper Nile and parts of Bahr al-Ghazal, relief sources told IRIN on Wednesday.
In addition, the IAC urged the warring parties in Sudan "to refrain from carrying out military operations which target civilians and civilian infrastructure", and to adhere to international humanitarian and human rights law.

ICRC remembers colleagues, addresses impunity

The staff of the International Commitee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Monday paid tribute to colleagues who have died while bringing assistance to victims of war, including one killed in May when an ICRC plane was fired on in southern Sudan.
The date was the fifth anniversary of the assassination of six ICRC delegates at a hospital in Chechyna but, over the years, has become a day to honour and remember all ICRC personnel who have lost their lives while doing their humanitarian work around the world.
Monday's commemoration extended to colleagues from the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and from other humanitarian agencies, together with civilian and military medical personnel killed while performing their duties. It also sought to address the issue of impunity for those who did harm, or sought to do harm, to humanitarian workers.
Danish pilot Ole Friis Eriksen was killed in May when an ICRC aircraft came under fire when a technical problem forced it to reduce altitude over the Didinga Hills, Eastern Equatoria, southern Sudan.
The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) each accused the other of responsibility for the killing, which occurred between Lokichoggio, northwestern Kenya, and Juba, Western Equatoria, on a flight for which prior notice had been given and authorisation received from all the parties.
That tragedy, which followed the brutal killings of six ICRC workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo less than two weeks earlier, "underscored the dangers faced by humanitarian personnel in delivering assistance to those in need", UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima said back in May.
For the ICRC, security problems - from the Ituri assassinations, to the premature halt to an aid programme in northern Burundi and the forced withdrawal of expatriate staff from Afghanistan in September 200 – were among the most telling obstacles to its humanitarian work this year, it reported last week in a preview of planned operations for 2002.
These were reminders of how difficult, but how important, it was for a neutral and independent humanitarian organisation to maintain access to the victims of conflict or internal violence and work in close proximity to them, it added.
On 21 May, after a suspension of almost two weeks, the ICRC announced the resumption of its aid flights into southern Sudan under new, stricter conditions, based on information that the attack had not been premeditated, but the result of a tragic combination of circumstances, and that the ICRC was not deliberately targeted.
To this day, investigations into the deaths of ICRC staff undertaken by the authorities of the countries concerned "have yielded no tangible results," the ICRC reported on Monday.
It appealed once again that the relevant authorities "do their utmost to find the perpetrators of these acts and to bring them to justice."
The ICRC called upon all those taking part in armed conflict and internal violence - in Sudan and elsewhere - to respect impartial humanitarian work and medical activities, and to refrain from attacking anyone involved in such action.
As civilians, humanitarian workers were protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and the Additional Protocols of 1977, it said, adding that civilian and military medical personnel were protected by all four Geneva Conventions and their two Additional Protocols.
"The wilful killing of such personnel is a grave breach of international humanitarian law," the ICRC added.

UN adopts resolution on emergency assistance

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Friday adopted a resolution proposed by Tanzania on behalf of the African group of countries on strengthening the coordination of emergency humanitarian and disaster relief assistance in Sudan.
Despite a number of concerns raised about the resolution, notably by Canada and the European Union (EU), the Assembly adopted, by consensus and without a vote, draft resolution L.60 on emergency assistance to the Sudan.
Under the terms of the resolution, the Assembly urged the international community to continue supporting national and international programmes of rehabilitation, voluntary resettlement and reintegration of returnees and internally displaced persons, as well as assistance to refugees.
It also urged all parties involved to continue to offer all feasible and necessary assistance to guarantee the success of the UN-coordinated Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) in all affected parts of the country, according to a UN press release.
By the same text, the Assembly called on all parties (to the war in Sudan) to respect international humanitarian law on the protection of civilians during times of war. It condemned attacks on civilians and attacks on and detentions of humanitarian personnel, calling for appropriate investigations into all allegations concerning such incidents.
The Canadian delegate, John von Kaufmann, said his country would agree to consensus on the resolution because of its continuing commitment to humanitarian assistance for the people of the Sudan.
However, he said, Canada continued to have misgivings about some of the language contained in the text, and its potential effect on a coordinated international effort to deliver humanitarian assistance to affected populations in Sudan, and on the pursuit of peace.
Von Kaufmann said Canada fully supported the aim of achieving a comprehensive and permanent cease-fire in Sudan, but continued to believe that the parties must work within the framework of the peace process [of the regional Inter-Governmental Authority for Development, IGAD] and adhere to and implement the Declaration of Principles.
He also expressed concern that a paragraph in the preamble to the resolution proper called for humanitarian assistance to be channelled solely through OLS. Canada continued to support and fund "the vital work of the operation", and applauded its efforts to act with transparency, imagination, and humanity in extremely difficult circumstances, he said.
However, support must also be given to agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, which worked independently of, but in concert with, the basic spirit of OLS, he added.
Von Kaufmann also expressed disappointment that there was no mention of the challenges associated with child soldiers in the final text of the resolution, saying that Canada remained deeply concerned by the abduction, recruitment or use of child soldiers, and the humanitarian effect that armed conflict had on children in Sudan.
Stephane de Loecker of Belgium, speaking on behalf of the EU, said a recent visit by an EU delegation to Khartoum had led to open-ended and constructive dialogue, but that the EU regretted that consultation on the draft resolution with the Sudanese delegation in New York had not developed in the same positive spirit.
Some amendments, however constructive, had been rejected offhand without sufficient discussion, a UN press release quoted him as saying.
The draft resolution did not reflect the gravity of the situation in Sudan as described in the last report of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, de Loecker said. Indeed, the humanitarian situation had deteriorated during the period covered by the report, he added.
Despite its concern about inadequacies in the draft resolution, the EU joined in with the consensus, and the Assembly adopted the resolution 
without a vote.
The Tanzanian-proposed resolution welcomed the recent decision of the government of Sudan to provide humanitarian access to the Nuba [Nuba] Mountains in Southern Kordofan, south-central Sudan, and called on all parties to cooperate with the UN in meeting the needs assessed there.
It also called on UN agencies, NGOs and donor countries "to continue contributing and channelling their humanitarian assistance to all affected populations in the Sudan through OLS".
In adopting the resolution, the Assembly urged all parties to the conflict to desist from using land mines, and urged the international community to refrain from supplying mines to the region.
It also noted that, despite contributions to the inter-agency appeal for OLS, "considerable relief needs remain to be addressed", including assistance to combat diseases such as malaria, and assistance for logistics, emergency, recovery, rehabilitation and development.
The resolution regretted the war's negative impact on the humanitarian situation in Sudan and reaffirmed the need for all parties to facilitate the work of aid agencies delivering emergency assistance - "in particular the supply of food, medicine, shelter and health care, and to ensure safe and unhindered access to all affected populations".
It called on all the warring parties to agree to a comprehensive and permanent humanitarian cease-fire to assure the delivery of relief assistance, and emphasised the need for cooperation from all sides to facilitate and improve the delivery of relief supplies.

US reports progress on humanitarian access

The government of Sudan and the rebel Sudan people's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) have agreed on an internationally monitored cease-fire to cover the Nuba [Nuba] Mountains region, Southern Darfur, south-central Sudan, and on "military stand-downs" to implement a US-proposed initiative to eradicate polio, according to the United States government. 
Roger Winter, Director of the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), told United Nations officials and donors in Switzerland that a US technical team - following up on the November mission to Sudan of American peace envoy John Danforth - had "conducted substantive negotiations with both parties and found some common ground for agreement." 
"It remains to be seen whether the parties' actions will reflect the agreements... but we are encouraged by the progress that has been achieved", Winter stated.
In the course of meetings with representatives of the government and the SPLM/A from 6-13 December, the two parties "agreed to negotiate an internationally monitored cease-fire to cover the entire Nuba Mountains region, and to a relief and rehabilitation programme for all civilians in the Nuba Mountains region," according to a US statement released in Switzerland and Sudan. 
Khartoum and the SPLM/Nuba "agreed to immediately observe and extend the current military stand-down and to apply it to the entire Nuba Mountains region to facilitate the negotiation of the cease-fire and the relief and rehabilitation programme," it stated. [http://www.us-mission.ch/press2001/1214sudan.html]
Washington believed that "strict adherence to the military stand-down will be essential to the success of efforts in the Nuba Mountains region," it added.
The rebel movement last week accused Khartoum of violating the agreed period of tranquility in the Nuba Mountains by undertaking a military offensive. 
In Friday's statement by the US, it said the Sudanese government and the SPLM/Nuba had also agreed to the immediate dispatch of a relief and rehabilitation assessment mission to the Nuba Mountains, the findings of which would serve as the basis for the development of a relief and rehabilitation programme.
Khartoum and the SPLM/Nuba have also "agreed to participate immediately in direct negotiations with third party participation to work out the details of the cease-fire," according to Friday's statement from the US. The time and location of these negotiations is to be confirmed after the Washington consults with third party participants.
Meanwhile the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) are to meet separately with the Government and the SPLM/Nuba to negotiate and develop a comprehensive relief and rehabilitation programme for all civilians in the Nuba Mountains region, based on the findings of the assessment mission.
The initial four-week period of tranquility, during which WFP secured access to airdrop over 2,000 mt of food, officially ended on Sunday 9 December, though Danforth expressed hope during his Sudan mission that it would be extended indefinitely. Additional food deliveries would be needed next year, probably before April, according to WFP.
In addition to food interventions, the civilian population of the Nuba Mountains urgently needs access to non-food assistance - including medical help, shelter and educational opportunity - as well as a rehabilitation programme, the need for which was identified years ago and can only have got worse, aid workers told IRIN.
While in Sudan in mid-November, Danforth also proposed that the government and SPLM/A agree to adhere to selected periods of tranquility to allow the conduct of humanitarian operations.
Washington on Friday announced that Khartoum and the rebel movement had agreed to a US-proposed initiative to eradicate polio, and agreed to military stand-downs to facilitate this eradication effort - "including a commitment by the Government not to ban flights associated with this effort." 
The parties also reacted positively to the proposals presented by Washington on dealing with Guinea Worm and rinderpest, but the government said it needed more time to review the proposals, the statement said. Khartoum and the US agreed to complete these discussions and to reach a decision by the time of a return visit by Danforth to Sudan in January. 
The implementation of these three initiatives on polio, Guinea Worm and rinderpest is to involve the two warring parties, various UN agencies, the US (through USAID) and the Carter Center - a non-profit public policy institute founded by former US President Jimmy and his wife Rosalynn which seeks, among other things, to prevent and resolve conflicts. 
The Carter Centre has been a key partner in an aggressive programme to tackle Guinea Worm in Sudan. The parasite gives rise, through contaminated water, to a disease which cripples victims, leaving them unable to work, attend school, care for children or harvest crops. There were some 54,000 cases reported in Sudan last year, almost three-quarters of the global total, with the highest recorded incidences in West and South Kordofan, in the midwest, and southern Blue Nile, White Nile and Sinnar in east-central Sudan.
Rinderpest is the most dreaded bovine plague - a highly infectious viral disease that can destroy entire populations of cattle and buffalo, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). 
In regions that depend on cattle for meat, milk products and draft power, it can and has caused famine, and has inflicted serious economic damage. Rinderpest can be prevented with vaccination but spreads easily among non-vaccinated herds through livestock trade and pastoral migrations.
"The Government [of Sudan] and the SPLM each made a clear, firm commitment to avoid all bombardment of civilian and humanitarian targets," the US stated on Friday, echoing another of Danforth's proposals to the warring parties in Sudan. 
In this regard, the SPLM agreed to the proposed establishment of an internationally-supported verification mechanism to investigate and report on alleged incidents of civilian targets, though the government said that it was unable to agree to such a mechanism except in the context of a negotiated, comprehensive cease-fire.
Sudanese opposition to the idea of localised ceasefire agreements had previously been flagged, and President Umar Hasan al-Bashir said last month that any long-term cease-fire in Nuba should include the oil pipeline which crosses the mountains, and not just the areas where civilians are at risk. 
"We have expressed to the American presidential envoy our reservation towards the partial cease-fire he has proposed," AFP quoted him as saying. 
During last month's mission, Danforth also called for an end to slavery. In Geneva on Friday, Winter told the UN and donors that Khartoum and the SPLM had "agreed to facilitate and support the visit to Sudan of a US-led and internationally supported mission to conduct an on-the-ground investigation of means of preventing slavery, abduction and forced servitude throughout Sudan."   
The government of Sudan had agreed to support such a visit even though it rejects the assertion that slavery and the slave trade exist in Sudan, according to the US statement. 
Both parties had also agreed to implementation of cross-line programmes to reduce tensions in the area, including proposals to promote reconciliation between neighboring ethnic groups and proposals to provide groups in the area access to grazing areas and markets, it added. 
Danforth is scheduled to return to Sudan and the region in early January to measure progress on the implementation of these commitments.
The four US proposals - on humanitarian access to the Nuba Mountains; a cessation of bombing and  artillery attacks on civilians; zones of tranquility and times of tranquility in which humanitarian assistance can be offered, especially for immunisations; and, an end to the taking of slaves - were "tests of good faith" for the government and SPLM/A, Danforth said after his mission to Sudan last month. 
"If they don't want peace, they will tell us by inaction, or by sabotage of these ideas, or by saying one thing and doing another - which is as bad," Danforth added.

Rebels tell of "fierce fighting" in Nuba Mountains

Fighting between the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and pro-government forces, which began on 3 December, was still "raging" around the town of Kurungo West in the Nuba Mountains, SPLM/A spokesman George Garang reported on Friday, 7 December. The rebel movement accused Khartoum of violating an agreed period of tranquility by undertaking a military offensive in the Nuba Mountains, Southern Kordofan, south-central Sudan. Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that they were "pretty convinced" the attacks mentioned in the SPLM/A statement had taken place. Other government attacks had taken place in the Nuba Mountains during the cease-fire period, and there was no reason to doubt these reports, they added. A UN World Food Programme (WFP) operation to airdrop some 2,039 MT of emergency food aid in Nuba was completed last week, several days before the end of the four week cease-fire period. Additional food deliveries would probably be needed before April of next year, WFP added. [Full story http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=17405]

State of emergency extended

Sudan's National Assembly on Sunday unanimously approved the extension of the country's state of emergency "until the end of the reasons that had led to its declaration," according to the official Sudan News Agency (SUNA).
The decision was taken after a report to the assembly by the Security and National Defence Committee, it reported.
President Umar Hasan al-Bashir said the latest extension of the state of emergency - first imposed in December 1999 - was necessary because of the war in the south, armed banditry in western Sudan and the tense state of global affairs since the 11 September terrorist attacks on the United States, according to state radio reports, cited by Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency.
Bashir said he hoped the emergency status could be lifted at the end of 2002, it added.
The state of emergency was declared in December 1999 after Bashir fell out with his erstwhile ally, former Speaker of Parliament, Umar Hasan al-Turabi, after a power struggle within the ruling National Congress party.
Turabi has been held in detention since February after his Popular National Congress (PNC) party - a splinter from the National Congress after Turabi's ouster - signed a memorandum of understanding with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), which undertook to step up "peaceful popular resistance" in Sudan. 
What had appeared to be serious efforts to democratise Sudan were discontinued at the end of 2000, with some security laws tightened and the security police stepping up their activities, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Sudan, Gerhart Baum, reported to the UN General Assembly in September 2001.
It appeared that, with the extension of the state of emergency to the end of 2001, restrictions on nongovernmental organisations and the media, and a campaign of harassment, intimidation and persecution of political opponents of the government, political freedom had actually been restricted rather than relaxed this year, Baum stated.

US criticised over biological weapons alert

The London-based advocacy group European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council on Monday expressed deep concern at what it called "unsustainable and deeply irresponsible" allegations by the US government that Sudan is involved in developing a biological weapons programme.
The United States was particularly worried about existing or planned "offensive biological weapons programmes" or non-compliance with obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention in six named states, including Sudan, the US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, John R Bolton, told an international arms control meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on 19 November.
"We are concerned about the growing interest of Sudan [a non-party to the Biological Weapons Convention] in developing a biological weapons programme," he stated. [http://www.state.gov/t/] 
ESPAC said in a statement on Monday that Bolton's claim was "unsubstantiated, deeply irresponsible and... very much in keeping with the previous Clinton Administration's failed attempts to isolate Sudan from the international community by making similarly unsubstantiated claims." 
The Council [www.espac.org] describes itself as a privately-funded organisation which runs advocacy, education and media projects designed to work towards a better understanding of the complexities of the Sudanese situation, and to encourage peace and reconciliation in the country.
It also challenges what it considers "inaccurate and questionable coverage of Sudan and Sudanese affairs," and has openly criticised leading international media - including the BBC and respected American and British newspapers - for what it has variously described as innacurate, irresponsible or prejudiced reporting.   
Bolton's comment on behalf of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency was putting US political policy and expediency before science with regard to Sudan, just as it had in making "inaccurate and misleading claims" which led to the 1998 US attack on the al-Shifa medical factory in Khartoum in 1998 in connection with its alleged manufacture of chemical weapons, according to ESPAC. 
Bolton's unsubstantiated claims were not just unreliable little more than propaganda dressed up as "intelligence", it said in Monday's statement. 
"For its own credibility on this serious issue, the Bush administration cannot allow its reputation with regard to arms control and non-proliferation to be sullied for the sake of cheap propaganda attacks on Sudan," it added.
At the 19 November meeting, Bolton argued for a stronger international regime for biological weapons control, saying that Sudan, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Syria and Libya were among those states which had not been dissuaded from an interest in biological weapons by the existing Biological Weapons Convention.  
Prior to 11 September, Bolton said, he would have avoided the approach of naming states in public, but the world had changed since then and so must the "business-as-usual approach" to arms control given "the potential use of biological weapons by terrorist groups, and states that support them."
The US envoy said legislators needed to look beyond traditional arms control measures to deal with the complex and dangerous threats posed by biological weapons. He proposed stricter measures to assure compliance of prohibitions on the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling or retention of biological weapons, and their delivery systems. 
Countering those threats would require a full range of measures: tightened export controls, an intensified non-proliferation dialogue, increased domestic preparedness and controls, enhanced biodefense and counter-bioterrorism capabilities, he said.
The measures proposed by the US on 19 November, would, if adopted, contribute significantly to control access to dangerous pathogens [disease-causing agents], deter their misuse, punish those who misuse them, and alert states to their risks, according to Bolton.

SPLM/A speaks of ''fierce fighting'' in Nuba Mountains

Fierce fighting between the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and pro-government forces, which began on 3 December, was still "raging" around the town of Kurungo West in the Nuba Mountains, SPLM/A spokesman George Garang said in a statement on Friday, 7 December.  
The rebel movement accused Khartoum of violating an agreed period of tranquility by undertaking a military offensive in the Nuba Mountains, in Southern Kordofan, south-central Sudan. 
"The fighting violates the four-week period of tranquility which the GOS [government of Sudan] had accepted to observe for the airdropping of much-needed humanitarian assistance to the war ravaged parts of the Nuba Mountains," the statement said.
Just before a visit of US peace envoy John Danforth in November, the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A agreed to a four-week period of tranquility to allow humanitarian assistance to reach the civilian population of the Nuba Mountains. 
"We call upon the international community and the United States, in particular, to restrain the GOS from carrying on with its crimes against humanity by ceasing these senseless hostilities," Garang's statement said.
Humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday that they were "pretty convinced" the attacks mentioned in the SPLM/A statement had taken place. 
Other government attacks had taken place in the Nuba Mountains during the cease-fire period, and there was no reason to doubt these reports, sources said.
The Nuba Mountains has been the site of serious fighting between forces loyal to Khartoum and the SPLA in recent years. Many Nuba people have fled fertile plains around the mountains to seek refuge on the SPLM/A-held mountain slopes, while others have been forced into government "peace camps". 
The Nuba Relief Rehabilitation and Development Organisation (NRRDO) estimated in June that the lives of some 80,000 people in the region were at risk.
A cessation of hostilities and unrestricted humanitarian access to the Nuba Mountains was one of four confidence-building measures proposed by Danforth during his four-day mission to Sudan in mid-November. 
Danforth also proposed a cessation of bombing and artillery attacks on civilians; zones of tranquility and times of tranquility to enable safe delivery of humanitarian assistance; and an end to the taking of slaves.
A UN World Food Programme (WFP) operation to airdrop some 2,039 MT of emergency food aid in Nuba was completed last week, several days before the end of the four week cease-fire period. 
However, some staff had remained in the Nuba Mountains to finish an assessment of additional aid requirements, according to the UN food agency.
Although Danforth expressed hope during his Sudan mission that the Nuba cease-fire would be extended indefinitely, WFP told IRIN on 5 December that it would not be asking Khartoum to extend the tranquility period - which officially ended on Sunday, 9 December. 
Additional food deliveries would probably be needed before April of next year, WFP added.
Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir said last month that any long-term cease-fire in Nuba should include the oil pipeline which crosses the Nuba Mountains, and not just the areas where civilians are at risk. 
"We have expressed to the American presidential envoy our reservation towards the partial cease-fire he has proposed," AFP quoted him as saying. 
Meanwhile, a US delegation on a five-day mission to follow up on Danforth's visit and "flesh-out" his proposals held its first meeting with Sudanese officials on Saturday, 8 December. 
The US team, headed by Jeffrey Millington, coordinator of the Sudan section of the US State Department, met Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il and Foreign Under-Secretary Mutref Siddeiq Ahmed, with the aim of gauging the government's reaction to Danforth's proposals and "putting meat on what they might mean in practice," humanitarian sources told IRIN on Monday. 
The seven-man delegation is also expected to travel to southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains to discuss the proposals with SPLM/A officials, Reuters reported on Saturday.   
Danforth has said he will return to Sudan in early January to receive a formal response to his suggested confidence-building measures from Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir and SPLM/A leader John Garang.

The Sudanese government has expressed its opposition to a draft resolution on human rights adopted by the UN General Assembly's Third Committee last week, saying the text was biased in favour of the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
The Sudanese government delegate to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) said the draft resolution - approved by 82 votes in favour to 34 against, with 45 abstentions, on 30 November - condoned the activities of the SPLM/A. 
The government envoy said the SPLM/A, which she described as a terrorist movement, had carried out bombings, killed humanitarian workers and taken innocent civilians as human shields in its attempt to prolong Sudan's 18-year civil war.
The United States abstained in the vote, saying the resolution did not go far enough to improve human rights in Sudan. 
Referring, in particular, to slavery, the US said that although the resolution called for actions to end the abduction of women and children, it did not reflect the true, tragic position of human rights in the country.
An undertaking to end slavery was one of four confidence-building measures proposed by US peace envoy to Sudan, John Danforth, during a visit to the country in November. 
The Khartoum government has repeatedly stated that there is no slavery practised in Sudan, while admitting that there is a problem of some tribal militias abducting civilians. 
"If a proof of slavery is produced, the government will act to stop such a practice, and if there is no evidence, the US should close this case," AFP news agency quoted Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir as saying late last month.
In Sudan last month, Danforth also proposed a cessation of bombing attacks on civilians; zones of tranquility and times of tranquility to enable safe delivery of humanitarian assistance; and permanent humanitarian access to the war-torn Nuba Mountains in Southern Kordofan.
While the Sudanese government agreed to an initial four-week period of tranquility in the Nuba Mountains to allow urgently needed deliveries of food aid, it has concerns about any longer-term ceasefire in this region alone. 
"We have expressed to the American presidential envoy our reservation towards the partial [Nuba] ceasefire he has proposed," AFP quoted Bashir as saying. 
A ceasefire should include the oil pipeline which crosses the Nuba Mountains as well as the oil production sites near those mountains, according to Bashir. He also referred to a number of failed attempts since the mid-1990s to implement ceasefires in Bahr al-Ghazal State, southern Sudan.
Khartoum has consistently called for a comprehensive ceasefire to allow for peace talks, while the SPLM/A has long maintained that such a ceasefire arrangement is only possible in the context of a comprehensive political settlement. 
According to the draft resolution on human rights in Sudan adopted by the Third Committee last week, the General Assembly would express deep concern at continuing serious violations of human rights by both government and rebel forces. 
The draft text highlighted the occurrence of extrajudicial and arbitrary executions, the use of civilian premises for military purposes and the forced displacement of populations living around the oilfields.
The Sudanese delegate claimed that parts of the text regarding the extraction of oil resources compromised the sovereignty of Sudan. 
Suggestions that development of the oil industry had led to forced displacement were false, and the Sudanese government had every right to utilise the natural resources of its country, she said.
A US delegation is scheduled to spend five days in Sudan from Friday, 7 December, in order to gauge reactions from Khartoum and the SPLM/A to Danforth's four proposals. The group of seven officials is expected to discuss in detail plans for a truce in the Nuba Mountains region, and also elicit opinions from political leaders on the other three initiatives.
"My meetings were primary, but the group that is going will hold detailed discussions," Danforth said at a US State Department briefing on 27 November.

Francis Deng is the Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Displaced Persons. In an interview with IRIN after a recent visit to Sudan, Deng said that the government had agreed to hold a workshop which he hoped would result in a clear strategy on internal displacement. In discussions with the Sudanese authorities he said that the international image of Sudan would be enhanced if it was seen to care about the plight of its own people and called on the Government to solicit international cooperation to help it deal with the displacement problem.

Question: What was the purpose of your recent trip to Sudan ?

Answer: I made my first trip to Sudan in 1992 shortly after I was appointed. But even then I battled with the idea. Having been given a global assignment how would it be perceived if I rushed to Sudan as one of the first countries to visit ? At the same time I thought that if I did not visit Sudan early on in my tenure when it is the worst case of global displacement people could also say: "How does he go around the world looking at other people's problems when he has the worst problems in his own country". So I figured out that if I'm going to be blamed I'd rather be blamed for doing something and so I went to Sudan.
Since then I have wanted to go back and the government has on occasions invited me but for a variety of reasons I didn't return until recently. I went to dialogue on ways in which the international community could cooperate with the Sudanese government to address internal displacement and specifically to agree on holding a workshop to address these issues. So I think that this was a very positive development. 

Q: Do you think that something concrete will come out of this workshop or will it just be a talking shop ?

A: If this conference can help Sudan develop a clear strategy on internal displacement thereby showing a great deal of concern about the plight of their people, and if Sudan can be seen to be doing it, I think it would help address the humanitarian problems of internal displacement specifically as well as promoting international involvement in addressing the problem and I think that the international image of Sudan would be enhanced. 

Q: To what extent do you feel that the Sudan Government complies with your own Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement ?

A: It certainly is an issue for discussion. The Sudanese authorities have raised the point in the General Assembly that the guiding principles were not negotiated by States and that they should be subject to that kind of negotiation. It's a position they hold with others. They have also expressed concern that both the displacement problem and the guiding principles could be used as a justification for humanitarian intervention which they are quite wary about. My argument with the Sudanese authorities is that first of all our case of internal displacement is the worst in the world. We should be seen to be very concerned about the plight of our own people and should solicit international cooperation to help us deal with this problem. Second, by being seen to care about our problems the international image of Sudan will be enhanced. 

Q: The Sudanese government has accused you of relying on data on displaced people provided by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and ignoring figures given by the government. Can you comment on this ?

A: I think there needs to be a slight correction here. I did read their statement and media reports on this subject. The Sudan Government is saying that the sources cited in my report include those from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) database. It may amount to the same thing but there is a difference in saying that I am relying primarily on SPLM sources and that the database is relying on those sources. The NRC has said publicly that its makes every effort to present information on internal displacement in an objective and fair manner without judgement or bias and that it seeks to compile information from all sides of a conflict.
The Sudanese government did also say that the results of my visit to the Sudan were not reflected in my report to the General Assembly. This is because my report to the General Assembly preceded my mission to the Sudan by a period of two months so there is no way we could have reflected the results of my mission in it. The findings of my mission to Sudan will be submitted to the next session of the Commission on Human Rights to be held in March and April next year. So that is a technical error on their part as they did not know the timing of the submission of the report. 

Q: What is your view of the recent Resolution on the displacement that was recently adopted by the Third Committee of the General Assembly ? 

A: I am quite satisfied that it was adopted by consensus and by the fact that 64 States voted for it. I am concerned that there is a group of states that still feels that this is a potential infringement on sovereignty when I think we have made a plausible case that sovereignty cannot be seen as a barricade against international involvement to help countries deal with humanitarian and human rights problems. Sovereignty cannot mean that whatever happens within your borders and whatever you do with your citizens, the world will not get involved. I see sovereignty as a principle of  responsibility to put your house in order, to take care of your people, to assist them and  protect them and if you need international cooperation to call on the international community or at least to welcome their initiative to help your people.I  do believe that the cause of human rights and humanitarian involvement is progressive, is incremental and that those who are trying to halt the march of humanitarian progress will be seen historically in a negative light.

NAIROBI, 5 December (IRIN) - UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Mary Ann Wyrsch on Tuesday stressed the need for the Kenyan government to enact national refugee legislation to ensure the rights of some 218,00 refugees being housed by the east African country are upheld. 
"The situation of long-term refugees can be regularised if there are appropriate and fulsome legislative frameworks to govern their asylum," Wyrsch said at a press conference in Nairobi on Tuesday.
Wyrsch said continuing conflict and political instability in neighbouring Sudan and Somalia meant many refugees were likely to remain in Kenya for some time, and so their lives needed to be brought into the scope of Kenyan law. She expressed hope, however, that "in the longer geopolitical context return will be available to these people." 
As part of a mission to Eritrea, Uganda and Kenya, Wyrsch visited the Dadaab and Kakuma camp complexes in eastern and northwestern Kenya respectively, which together house over 210,000 mainly Somali and Sudanese refugees.
A final draft of national refugee legislation was shared with the Kenyan Ministry of Home Affairs in 1999, but is still awaiting enactment in the Kenyan parliament, according to UNHCR. Although the Kenyan administration has develped some specific refugee policies, there is no legal code "to ensure refugees rights are respected," and legislation is needed to "provide answers to the outstanding questions regarding refugee rights in Kenya," UNHCR regional spokesman Paul Stromberg told IRIN on Tuesday 4 December.
Wyrsch told journalists she had discussed with Kenyan government representatives during her visit the importance of finalising the country's refugee registration process. The registration of Kenya's refugee population, which was started at the beginning of last year and is yet to be completed, was essential to improve the security of refugees in Kenya, she said.
According to the UNHCR global report for 2000 some Kenyan politicians have openly suggested that the presence of refugees in Kenya has contributed to insecurity in the country, and that Nairobi's rising crime rate could be partly attributed to the city's almost 8,000 urban refugees. Where refugees had moved outside the camps, they had sometimes been mistaken for illegal immigrants, had been arrested, and sometimes been the subject of violent attacks, George Okoth-Obbo UNHCR Nairobi branch representative said on Tuesday. 
According to Stromberg, the registration process aimed to provide refugees with registration cards wherever possible, in order to provide them with some proof of their official refugee status. "If refugees had explicit refugee documents their movements would be more regularised," Wyrsch said.
Wyrsch also commented on the fate of the remaining Sudanese "lost boys" currently being housed in Kenya, whose planned resettlement in the United States had been delayed following the 11 September terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
"Resettlement activity in third countries was curtailed due to a lack of travel options, and is just now being opened up," she said. The remaining "lost boys" would be the first to leave for the US when departures resume, UNHCR said.
Some 3,800 Sudanese youth from Kakuma camp have been accepted for resettlement in the US in recent months. The youth became known as the "lost boys" when they were separated from their parents during the civil war in 1987 and fled on foot more than 1,000 km to neighbouring Ethiopia. Some 10,000 eventually reached Kakuma in 1992, but many later left the camp before the US resettlement scheme began.
US President George W Bush on 21 November increased the quota for refugee resettlement from Africa to the US from 20,000 to 22,000, with the region covered by the US embassy in Nairobi accounting for 16,000 of these places, the UN refugee agency reported in its 'Update of Developments in the East and Horn of Africa' for November.

NAIROBI, 29 November (IRIN) - Sudanese envoy Ilham Ibrahim Mohamed Ahmed on Wednesday introduced a draft resolution to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the UN General Assembly calling for the assembly to urge the UN refugee agency and all other concerned bodies to mobilise adequate resources to meet the needs and interests of unaccompanied refugee minors. 
Last week, Ahmed expressed concern at the United Nations about the burden of refugees on host countries like Sudan, and asked that the international community give more help in sharing the burden amid signs that refugee assistance was dropping in Sudan. 
For the past three years, Ahmed told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the UN General Assembly on 19 November, Sudan had hosted refugee flows "with all goodwill and without hesitation, in spite of the social and environmental consequences". 
Refugees flows to Sudan in that period were mostly from Eritrea, peaking during renewed fighting in the Ethiopia-Eritrea in May/June 2000, when approximately 95,000 Eritreans fled to Sudan, mostly to Kassala State in the east. 
As fighting ended and conditions became conducive to return, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) facilitated the return of some 30,000 new Eritrean refugees, while over 45,000 more returned spontaneously. Khartoum estimates that there are approximately 16,000 of this new group of Eritrean refugees remaining in Sudan. 
Eritreans, both from prior conflict with Ethiopia and the fighting in 2000, make up the bulk of refugees in Sudan. There are some 160,000 registered Eritrean refugees being assisted by the UN refugee agency, while the government estimates that there are another 230,000 refugees - mainly a mixed population of Ethiopians and Eritreans - living in cities and towns.
UNHCR's intention is to continue to facilitate large-scale repatriation of Eritrean refugees (which resumed in October, when the cessation of rains allowed for transport arrangements) during the remainder of 2001 and throughout 2002. 
Sudan has followed its international agreements in hosting refugees, and hoped for their safe return to their countries of origin soon, according to Ahmed. The country was concerned, however, that Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries [presumably Uganda] were being exploited and forced to partake in armed conflicts, she said. 
Many of those refugees were children, and UNHCR should help protect them, she added. 
Sudan sheltered many refugees and had always dealt with the issue outside of refugee camps, according to Ahmed. Were there specific plans from the UNHCR to evaluate the needs of refugees outside of refugee camps? she asked. 
Ahmed also asked if the agency had contingency plans for emergency situations where an unexpected and massive influx came into a country very quickly, as happened in eastern Sudan, from Eritrea, in May/June 2000. 
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers said there were important differences between all countries hosting refugees, and that the agency was looking at how best it could help states protect and integrate refugees in their societies. 
Refugees outside of refugee camps needed to have a distinction made and the situation had to be examined on a country-by-country basis, Lubber said. Regarding new massive refugee flows, it was UNHCR's mission to prepare for these emergency situations, he added. 
Ahmed said her government needed to be helped in areas that were hardest hard hit by the influx of refugees, in particular concerning their effect on Sudan's natural resources.
UNHCR was aware that environmental issues can be problematic in refugee-hosting environments, but the agency had many projects  (including seed distribution, afforestation, water and sanitation activities) that helped local populations and the environment as well as refugee populations, regional spokesman Paul Stromberg told IRIN.
The refugee agency was always conscious that rehabilitation work would also have to be done in refugee-hosting areas once those refugee populations have left, and that would be addressed at the appropriate time, he added. 
Meanwhile, Ahmed assured the UN: "Sudan would continue to make resources available to all refugees in Sudan; they will receive everything they needed to live in an atmosphere of peace and dignity."