أﻷﻣﻢ اﻟﻤﺘﺤﺪة UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations Mission In

Date: 10August 2005

Office of the Spokesperson

PRESS BRIEFING

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s weekly briefing (12:30PM) by Radhia Achouri, Spokesperson for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Sudan:

Good afternoon everybody. Before I start I have to say that I have to finish and conclude this press briefing maximum at 01:15 because we have a Town Hall meeting for all UNMIS staff with the SRSG so I am afraid we can not extend this briefing further. Anyway I don’t have much to tell you today. All of you who followed our activities particularly during the recent events following the death of Dr. Garang you know what happened. However I am going to just let you know a couple of things surrounding that particular issue.

• SRSG Jan Pronk is back to after concluding his three days visit, during which he represented the UN in the funeral ceremony held on Saturday 6 August. Upon his arrival to Juba, the SRSG held a meeting with UNMIS and UN agencies personnel for a final review of the assistance provided to the SPLM and local authorities for the conduct of the funeral ceremony SRSG Pronk met yesterday with Gen. On Sunday, the SRSG had a meeting with Gen. (Chairman of the SPLM the soon to be officially appointed First Vice-President of Sudan and President of Southern Sudan) and a high level SPLM delegation, including , Vice-Chairman of the SPLM and Vice-President of Southern Sudan. During the meeting the SRSG praised the SPLM for the cohesion and unity they've shown after the tragic death of Dr. Garang by acting swiftly and appointing the new leader and reiterating their commitment to continue the implementation of the CPA. The SRSG discussed with his interlocutors a range of issues relating to the very short-term and longer term steps to be taken toward the full implementation of the peace agreement. He urged that the Institution provided for in the CPA, in particular the Ceasefire Political Commission (CPC) and the Evaluation and Assessment Commission (EAC) as soon as possible (these two institutions should have been established sometime ago according to the CPA). This would strengthen confidence in the whole process and help carrying the implementation of the agreement forward. He recommended that the SPLM identifies its immediate priorities in terms of relief aid and development assistance and promised that the UN will help within its capabilities in these areas, in particular urgent development and reconstruction needs. The SRSG reiterated that the UN stands ready to assist in the investigation to be carried out on the circumstances of Dr. Garang's death. He supported the view of the SPLM that the investigation commission should include external actors in order to dissipate any possible doubts regarding the results on the investigation. The SRSG advised that such a Commission should be established and conclude its work as soon as possible

UNMIS, P.O. Box 69, Khartoum 11111, Tel (+249) 1 83 794015, Fax (+249) 1 83 79 4041 in order to put final end to speculations. He underlined the need for full transparency in the proceedings of the Commission to prevent any possible speculations.

• At the request of the SPLM/A the UN in Sudan has provided assistance in the preparations of the funeral of Dr. . The assistance was logistical, including provision of air and ground transport to SPLM/A leadership and members as well as guests (UNMIS); preparation of the burial site and supply of medicine, food and water (UNMIS and UN agencies) as well as provision of doctors and nurses. Two UN officers were deployed to liaise in the Joint Ops Centre which the SPLM/A and the GoS established to coordinate the event. In addition to that, some LO from the SPLM/A were detached to the UN compound to facilitate communication regarding specific topics such as water, food and transport.

• The SRSG met on Sunday in Khartoum, at their request, with Roger Winter, SR of the US Deputy Secretary of State for Sudan and Constance Berry Newman, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs. During the meeting, the SRSG provided a general overview on the current situation in Sudan, the UN role and the steps yet to be taken to implement the CPA and to extend peace in the whole Sudan, including . On the CPA, the SRSG expressed his confidence that the parties will uphold their commitment to the agreement and will continue to work together towards its full implementation. He indicated that in general terms, he expects a delay in the implementation process of three weeks to a month. He stressed however that he was not concerned by such a delay since it will be the result of the tragic death of the SPLM leader Garang and not any other substantive reason, such as relinquishing any given commitment included in the CPA.

• An UNMO Team is currently deployed in New Cush, in the vicinity of the helicopter crash site. It was reported that a major group of experts will come to the scene of the accident in the coming week. However, the final composition of the investigation commission is not determined as of yet. The UNMOs will provide transportation to the investigators.

• PDSRSG for political Affairs will attend the IGAD Summit as well as the pre-talks consultations conveyed by M. Salim Ahmed Salim, the Abuja talks chief mediator, to be held in Tanzania. (dates are not finalized yet). SRSG Pronk is hopeful that these consultations would lead to an agreement on further procedural issues and the Agenda for the next round of Abuja talks, which were postponed at the request of the SLA.

• On military issues, the SRSG has requested the Force commander to review the deployment plans in order to speed up deployment operations based on the requirements of the situation on the ground. The SPLM and Ms. Garang if you recall have urged UNMIS to speed up its deployment. The SRSG will be holding a press conference next Wednesday and will update you on the situation.

This is what I have as far as I am concerned today. We have a couple of humanitarian updates from the WHO, from UNICEF and, I know Alula you are particularly interested in the Work Plan. We have also updates on the funding. We are done with the copies so feel free to grab them on your way out. This is what I have for you for today and, as I said, please help me

2 conclude this by 01:15 maximum. So I am ready for your questions and in this order: BBC followed by Reuters followed by Al-Sahafa.

Q: Two questions; I understand that UNMIS recovered the bodies from the crash site. How many bodies did UNMIS recover?

Spokesperson: I don’t have information on how many were recovered or how many UNMIS has transported, but I can check it out and then I will tell you. The figures that we have are talking about 17 but I’ll check.

Q: Others say about fourteen.

Spokesperson: The latest that I saw in official reports, our reports, are seventeen, but I’ll check.

Q: What are the reasons for postponing the Abuja talks and for how long?

Spokesperson: How long I don’t know. We don’t believe that the chief mediator will go for a long postponement. When exactly, we do not expect it will take months. We do not expect that. And we are hopeful that these pre-talks, these consultations in Tanzania, will help.

On why, the reason for postponement was requested by one of the parties (SLM/A). They sais they need to sort out some internal issues and that should have priority. Quality representation is needed. For the time being the mediation is giving time to the SLM to sort out its issues. In general, the mediation itself and all the observers do not expect this postponement to be open-ended because there is a momentum to keep.

Q: Is this postponement a direct consequence of the death of Dr. Garang?

Spokesperson: No. It has nothing to do with the death of Dr. Garang. The SLM has asked for the postponement for internal issues regarding the movement itself. You know that the SLM has been going through lots of – how do I qualify that – internal changes and reviewing of its structures and so on. So that situation is still relevant and they still have to agree on their internal structure, policy, and so on and so forth.

Q: A lot of people have expressed concern over Salva Kiir’s separatist tendencies. Does the United Nations think there may be possibilities of secession earlier than the six years prescribed in the CPA? And if so, what would be the consequences on the mission and on the funding of reconstruction in southern Sudan?

Spokesperson: Of course there are lots of speculations but as far as the UN is concerned, we do not have any reason to believe that as far as the implementation of the CPA goes and the commitment signed by parties to the CPA are to be questioned at any point of time.

Mr. Salva Kiir himself, in his statement, he was quite clear about that. Be it in his official statement during the burial and other statements that he released personally and also in answer to some questions from reporters, he was quite firm in saying that he will uphold the legacy of Dr. Garang as it stands. He will not change anything as far as the vision laid out by Dr. Garang is concerned and he was more explicit than that: he explicitly in his statement

3 during the funeral spoke about the need to work for the unity of the Sudan. I am sure that I have a copy of his statement and I can show it to you.

For us, when we spoke to him and we also spoke to the leadership, there is no reason whatsoever for us to believe that such a development will take place. We do believe that the schedule as laid out in the CPA itself will go on as is and we don’t have any reason to go that direction. So I am not going to answer your second question because we don’t have any reason to believe that. For us everything is going according to schedule and we have the conviction it will go according to schedule.

Q: I have two questions. My first is that the government has decided or has indeed formed a committee to investigate on the causes of the crash. Will the United Nations cooperate with this committee?

My second question is on the steps taken with the Misseiriya and the Dinka as mentioned in your report a week ago. Will those meetings take place on schedule?

Spokesperson: As for your first question, we had said and briefed you of all the information we had on the issue. The government indeed has decided to form a committee and this joint committee is a joint committee of the GoS and the SPLM. We talked on this issue with the SPLM on Sunday. The SPLM believes that such a committee must be of an international nature and cited the names of some states whose participation they think will benefit such an investigation. They also mentioned the UN. The SPLM believes that the UN should be one of the participating elements in this investigation.

On our part, we had offered to participate through experts – I am speaking not of UNMIS but of the UN in general and experts from the ICAO in particular. At the moment, we have not received a formal invitation to participate in the investigations and we are waiting for the primary parties that are the GoS, the SPLM and Uganda to announce the final composition of this committee. I repeat that we are at the disposal of the parties and should they formally request our participation we will participate and such participation will be in the form of experts from the ICAO. This is on your first question.

As for your second question, Mr. Jan Pronk was compelled to postpone the meetings and talks he was supposed to chair between representatives of the Misseiriya and the Ngok Dinka. You are aware why these meetings were postponed, Dr. Garang’s death).

At the moment Mr. Jan Pronk has not set a date for these talks but, at the same time, I would like to inform you that there are regular meetings taking place between the two parties and these meetings are not at high levels but at levels of personalities who are lower in political stature than those personalities who were supposed to hold talks with Mr. Pronk. The UN offices in attend and follow these meetings and we are very happy that these regular meetings started taking place following Mr. Jan Pronk’s visit to Abyei and his meetings with the Misseiriya and the Dinka and his visits to . As for Pronk’s meetings, these have been postponed until further notice but have not been cancelled. Mr. Pronk believes that since there are talks going on and the situation is very stable at the moment as we have not received any report of unrest in the region, he wants to give the chance first of all to this level of talks and then meet at higher levels with representatives of the Misseiriya and the Ngok Dinka.

Any other questions?

4 Q: After the tragic death of Dr. John Garang it seems that everything has stopped. What are the alternative preparations being made for the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. This is the only way to reduce tension which is happening. You see now, all things are going around investigations committee and so on.

Spokesperson: Well first of all we do not believe that everything has stopped. That is not our assessment. Yes things slowed down, but for very understandable reasons. Dr. Garang has been the leader of the movement for quite some time. It is not easy to replace him. Our understanding is that as far as the government is concerned they are ready. Because the immediate next step would be the formation of the Government of National Unity for instance and the institutions for the transitional period. They seem to be ready for that. We do understand that the SPLM had some extensive meetings on that as well and immediately after the inauguration of Mr. Salva Kiir we do expect things to go back to track and we do understand the SPLM had finalized to a large extent whatever it was required to finalize for the formation of the institutions including the government of national unity. On the ground they are working – they informed us – they are doing a lot as SPLM in terms of establishing their own institutions for the government of southern Sudan and I already told you that they need some assistance for moving their human resources around and don’t have it; they are lacking resources and we are trying to help them out. So we do not think that the whole process is at a standstill point for now.

Yes, there is a delay. We do expect a delay; as I told you Mr. Pronk also said that he expects a delay of three weeks to a month compared to the original calendar. But we should understand that there are reasons for it and it is just only normal.

The most important part for us – and as you said it –we do keep saying to our counterparts from the government and the SPLM that speeding up things is more important than ever because we need to reinstate confidence in the minds of people that the process is irreversible and that they have to keep believing in it and that they have to keep contributing in it. That is our message and so far we do have all reasons to believe that is going to happen.

Q: What about the international community? This is the Government of Sudan and the SPLM.

Spokesperson: As for the international community, I think if you saw the Presidential Statement coming out of the Security Council – and we do believe that it represents the international community – they made it quite clear that they are committed fully to the process, to the parties and they made an appeal also to the international community to stay with the parties and to keep providing assistance and even to speed it up because it is now more urgent than ever in order for anybody to prevent things from getting out of control, like the riots, and to end speculations once and for ever, they need to do things concretely to have achievements that would be the proof for everybody that the process is actually irreversible. So everybody has to stay behind this process and keep pushing – including the international community.

Q: My main question is concerning the repatriation of the IDPs and the refugees to Sudan and to their original homeland. When will it take place?

Spokesperson: Are you talking about southern refugees or …

5 Q: Both southern refugees and any person who left his original home and came here because most of them are saying that now peace has been signed so what is it that prevents them from going back home. Who is going to be responsible of their transportation?

Spokesperson: Well actually it is not that nothing is going on in terms of refugees. First we have lots of spontaneous returns – people returning on their own initiative. In that the UN system – I am talking about all the agencies: UNHCR, WFP, UNICEF, what have you – all of them are playing quite a crucial role in that. I don’t have the figures in my head but at some point we had a daily average coming back spontaneously but let me check the figures anyway. We had lots of that happening.

As far as organised return is concerned, we always pointed out to the difficulties of organising immediately such a return because of the situation on the ground. You know that basically southern Sudan is a minefield altogether and lots of mine-clearing is to take place mainly to secure at least some main routes to make it safe for people to return. Not only the roads but also the areas where they are going to be located – their areas of return. So it is a tremendous work that needs to be done.

As far as de-mining is concerned, we are doing things as fast as we can. Our operations have been delayed for quite a while by the rainy season but the de-mining work is going steadily and I am talking in particular about the Yei-Juba road. We are making quite some progress in there and there is lots of work – I do not have all the locations here. But for United Nations- organised return we have first to secure the area. Unfortunately for spontaneous returns our role is confined only to cater to the immediate needs of the communities returning – providing them with food, shelter, medicine and so on. But our role is different when it comes to organised return. We clear the roads, clear the areas of return, provide the returnees with the necessary assistance and even some rehabilitation work and prepare them to lead a normal life.

As far as who is going to be providing transportation, if it is organised by us of course that would be the agencies involved. Mainly UNHCR if it is refugees and as far as the IDPs are concerned, there are plenty of other agencies including the UNHCR who will be providing transportation. When it comes to spontaneous return, well most people return, unfortunately, walking – I mean for long distances. When they reach us or in an area in which we are operating, we assist them by providing transportation and other commodities like food, non- food items ad so on. But since we do not know where these people are coming from – most of them are coming from neighboring countries walking – once they reach us we assist them. But before that, unfortunately, they have to do the difficult journey.

Q: Some times back Dr. Garang and the UN Secretary-General Koffi Annan met and have seen the need for food in southern Sudan and the UN Secretary-General promised that the UN will support southern Sudan with food services. How far has the UN reached now in order to help the people on the ground there because, as you know very well, people are suffering, many are coming in and things are becoming bad. How far has the UN gone?

Spokesperson: Quite a good question. I am happy to have a colleague from WFP here. She might give you some in-sights in terms of food. Penny would you please join me. That is my colleague Penny Ferguson and she is from the WFP.

6 Penny (WFP): Thank you for your question and for your concerns about the south. We are obviously very concerned about the situation there and have been since the beginning of the year. We are in fact issuing an operational update on the south that will give you more detail on the work there and the exact situation either tomorrow or the day after. So I will make sure that that goes out to you.

Just to answer your question in very general terms, in our response to food needs in the south, there has been late response from donors for funding which has made it difficult to reposition the food in the south as well as we would have liked. As you know it, the rainy season in the south is an extended one and it always makes road access to many areas in the south very difficult. So once the rains begin in the south we are forced to rely on air-drops. And some of those difficulties this year have also been compounded by some shortages in jet fuel.

As of the end of May, we had only 26% of the funds that were needed for our operations in the south, the east and the transitional areas. We have had some response from donors to our appeals but we still face a 45% shortfall and so we have an urgent need for contributions. But, as I said, we will be putting up an operational update that will give you more specific detail on some of the areas that are of particular concern across the central belt and over across the east and some other parts of the country.

Spokesperson: Actually, this information, I think, we provided it to you not in the last briefing but in the briefing before. And we distributed also an update from the WFP at the time. Of course that update, as far as I understood from Penny, is still accurate now but we are waiting for a new update that will be released tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. But basically the situation is as you described it – shortfalls in terms of funding particularly for the south and other problems in terms of fuel and prices and so on. Please go back to my briefing not the last one but the one before it.

Penny (WFP): The most up to date details on this will be provided in the update which will reach you in the next couple of days.

Spokesperson: Any other questions? If not thank you very much and I hope to see you next week for the press conference given by Mr. Pronk on Wednesday as usual.

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