Top diplomats to Sudan begin Darfur summit without US, UK envoys
A group of international envoys to Sudan began a meeting on Monday in El Fasher, Darfur, to discuss the peace process. The event was hosted by the head of the UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID), Professor Ibrahim Gambari, who had invited representatives of the five Permanent members of the UN Security Council. However, reportedly the top Sudan envoys of the United States and United Kingdom declined to attend. At the retreat in El Fasher, North Darfur, the diplomats were scheduled to review “the Darfur political process, including the way forward help Darfuris and all the people of the Sudan achieve lasting peace,” according to a statement issued Saturday by the UN-African Union Mission. Gambari, who has aspired to take a greater role in the Darfur peace process than his predecessors, took the opportunity Monday to address the conference. He called on rebel chiefs Abdel Wahid Al Nur and Khalil Ibrahim to end their boycott of the Doha peace negotiations. He said that the time has come for Abdel Wahid to leave Paris and engage in the negotiations, and likewise for Khalil Ibrahim who is in Tripoli, Libya. Gambari’s disagreements with the US Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, were the cause of the latter’s absence, according to the Sudan Tribune. “Gration does not like the fact that Gambari wants to play a greater role in Darfur’s political process and feels that he is pulling the rug from under him,” the Tribune reported, citing ‘a source close to the meetings’. For his part, Darfuri activist Abdullah Adam Khatir told Radio Dabanga that the conference was missing America, Britain and France. In his view, the conference was a message from the international community and regional bodies that peace in Darfur will only be achieved by Darfuris themselves. Participants at the conference included Chinese envoy Liu Guijin; Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov; UN chief Ban Ki-Moon’s representative Haile Menkerios; and Joint AU-UN Chief Mediator Djibril Bassole. UNAMID also stated before the conference that it would be attended by special envoys to Sudan of the European Union, Austria, Canada, Finland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
A group of international envoys to Sudan began a meeting on Monday in El Fasher, Darfur, to discuss the peace process. The event was hosted by the head of the UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID), Professor Ibrahim Gambari, who had invited representatives of the five Permanent members of the UN Security Council. However, reportedly the top Sudan envoys of the United States and United Kingdom declined to attend.
At the retreat in El Fasher, North Darfur, the diplomats were scheduled to review “the Darfur political process, including the way forward help Darfuris and all the people of the Sudan achieve lasting peace,” according to a statement issued Saturday by the UN-African Union Mission. Gambari, who has aspired to take a greater role in the Darfur peace process than his predecessors, took the opportunity Monday to address the conference. He called on rebel chiefs Abdel Wahid Al Nur and Khalil Ibrahim to end their boycott of the Doha peace negotiations. He said that the time has come for Abdel Wahid to leave Paris and engage in the negotiations, and likewise for Khalil Ibrahim who is in Tripoli, Libya.
Gambari’s disagreements with the US Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, were the cause of the latter’s absence, according to the Sudan Tribune. “Gration does not like the fact that Gambari wants to play a greater role in Darfur’s political process and feels that he is pulling the rug from under him,” the Tribune reported, citing ‘a source close to the meetings’. For his part, Darfuri activist Abdullah Adam Khatir told Radio Dabanga that the conference was missing America, Britain and France. In his view, the conference was a message from the international community and regional bodies that peace in Darfur will only be achieved by Darfuris themselves.
Participants at the conference included Chinese envoy Liu Guijin; Russian envoy Mikhail Margelov; UN chief Ban Ki-Moon’s representative Haile Menkerios; and Joint AU-UN Chief Mediator Djibril Bassole. UNAMID also stated before the conference that it would be attended by special envoys to Sudan of the European Union, Austria, Canada, Finland, Japan, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.Photo: UNAMID Joint Special Representative Ibrahim Gambari, 6 June 2010, by Olivier Chassot
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