Near verbatim transcript of the question and answers session at the press conference held by UNAMID JSR Mohamed Ibn Chambas in Khartoum on 11 August 2014

Question 1. Abu Idris, Agency France Press: Can you confirm that the UN will conduct an official investigation next September about UNAMID handling of information?

Answer 1. JSR Chambas: I think many of you are aware that my former Spokesperson made some allegations about information flow between UNAMID and headquarters, this has been subject of concern at the level of UN Security Council which asked the Secretary-General to find out the truth about the matter, the allegations, consequently the Security Council and the Secretary- General has indeed appointed a committee and charge it with reviewing this matter and reporting back to Secretary-General. I met this team in New York when I was there and I showed them that the Mission has nothing to hide on this issue and we welcome any such visit by the committee and also I assured them that they will enjoy our full cooperation so that this matter can be brought to rest as quickly as possible so my understanding is that the team is in New York already and intending to come out to the Mission in the next week or two and will be very happy to work cooperate fully with them and to share with the mission the information management, information flow that exist which we believe meets UN standards. Thank you.

Q2. Baharam Abdalmunim, Al Yom Al Tali daily: Will it be possible to conduct the election in Darfur in accordance with the timetables announced by the National Elections Commission?

A2. JSR Chambas: Well we have been saying the security situation in Darfur remains challenging obviously it is always preferred under any circumstances for elections to be held when peace and security prevails and for the AU and UN that remains our main objective to work for the return of lasting and durable peace to end the conflict and we hope that possibilities are there to achieve this before elections are held.

Q3. Amir Asunni, Al-Khartoum newspaper: You spoke in your report that what is going on in Darfur are tribal violence and criminal acts, we need clarification about who is behind the criminal acts; are the militias or banditry. Concerning accusations by Aicha El Basri, the former spokesperson claimed that the mission dealt diplomatically with reports and that officials in UNAMID do not speak frankly about certain parties that are committing crimes in Darfur as claimed by Foreign Policy magazine.

A3. JSR Chambas: On the second part of your question, this is what exactly the first question was about, and as I have said, we in the mission wiling understanding abide by fully cooperate with the team that has been put in place by the SG and the end of the day the full facts of this matter will be known. And of course as an organization we always stand ready to improve upon any of our processes including information flow.

Regarding the criminality and banditry what is a fact is: this a real challenge now in Darfur, and as you know both the two major cities, Nyala and El Fasher, as I speak to you, the State governments have put in place special measures to deal with these issues of banditry and criminality which makes it difficult for the civilian population to live in peace and in normality, we very much welcome these special measures that have been put in place by both the Wali of South Darfur and the Wali of North Darfur to deal specifically with the issues in Nyala and in El Fasher. They are in a better position to tell us who are these criminal elements who are making life difficult for the local population. But the problem goes beyond Nyala and El Fasher. But we are very happy with these specific measures taken by the two Governors. Than you.

Q4. Hussein Saad, Al Yam newspaper: Mr. Ibn Chambas you have described the national dialogue as a historical opportunity to resolve the Darfur crisis. However the reality on the ground is that some political forces which support the process, on top of which is Sadig Al Mahdi, considered the dialogue as dead and even buried. Similarly, 18 of the political forces have formed an alliance calling it the national political forces alliance also described the national has reached a deadlock. Sure you are seeking to bring the armed movements on board to a dialogue whose big supporter described it as dead and buried. Last question: last Tuesday the authorities in South Darfur have raided Al Salam IDP camp and arrested around 26 IDPs.   

A4. JSR Chambas: First, on national dialogue, I hope it is not dead and it is the expectation of the African Union and the United Nations that all efforts be made to keep it alive. It presents indeed an unique and historical opportunity to use dialogue to resolve all the issues, the root causes of conflict in Sudan and other national challenges, as announced by the President. What we know from other situations, other countries, other experiences that is it never an easy task, it will take a lot of pre-dialogue consultations, a lot of confidence building , a lot of work behind the scenes, a lot of dialogue before dialogue, and that is all what we will urge the authorities to continue to engage in, and of course as mediators, every opportunity we have with opposition, armed or not armed, our effort is to encourage them to take advantage on this opportunity for national dialogue. So, I hope that this will continue to stay alive and that Sudan will seize this movement of national dialogue as other countries have done in the past to emerge out of conflict and civil strife which this country has known for way too long.

And on the attack on Alsalam camp, let me state that we have information about this. We have always stated that the responsibility for maintaining law and order in Sudan lies with the Government. This is a sovereign country, it has law enforcement obligations, it has its justice system and the AU, the UN is only here to facilitate and ensure that law and order and justice are maintained and are enforced according to due process of law. So, we want to say that we will continue to engage with the Government of Sudan in accordance with its own protection of civilian mandate and to ensure that the activities on law enforcement agencies are carried out without infringement of the rights of innocent civilians specially vulnerable communities in IDP camps. We hope that on the other hand residents of IDP camps can understand and do understand that possession of weapons, carrying of weapons is not allowed in IDP camps under international humanitarian law.

It’s also imperative, and it’s a responsibility of the leaders of IDP camps to ensure that no one is using these camps to keep weapons or to hide weapons, because this is against international humanitarian law. These are the issues involved there and we as UNAMID we will continue to work with both sides, with IDP leaders to educate them what is permissible in these camps and what is not, and at the same time working  with Government to enforce legitimately law and order but to do that respecting the civic and human rights of the citizens and also respecting due process of law. Thank you.

Q5. Mohamad Mahmood, Al-Sudani newspaper: There is news indicating that some UNAMID personnel are infected with Ebola and they are form Ebola stricken countries, what measures UNAMID is taking to prevent the disease and ensure safety of it is personnel?

A5. JSR Chambas: I can only categorise this now as a rumour, and I hope that this forum will not be a forum for rumour mongering or spreading of rumours, thank you. 

Follow up answer by the Spokesperson: let me add to that and clarify, that the Mission is taking measures in this regard, first, let us make it clear that there isn’t any case or even a suspected one reported among UNAMID staff (military, civilians or police) I repeat, there isn’t a single case of infection, not even a suspicion of an infection with Ebola.  In addition to that the mission has taken measures among which that all UNAMID personnel travelling to and from the countries where there is Ebola, have to undergo strict medical screening procedure for the virus procedures with UN-certified medical staff, prior to their departure to, upon their return to the Mission by a UN approved physician. We continue to engage closely with the World Health Organization which leads the efforts on fighting the epidemic and we regularly review our measures to ensure the safety and well-being of our staff in the first place and to safeguard against the spread of any epidemics amongst them; as well as ensuring the same for the population we serve.

Q6. Osama Abu Shanab, Alray Al-Aam Newspaper: JSR, I want to ask you mentioned that there are efforts in cooperation with President MBeki and Haile Menkerious to host talks between the government and the rebels have you specified a time or a place for such a meeting other than or an alternative to the Addis forum? Thank you.

A6. JSR Chambas: At this point, all of this is in line with the demand from the AU Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council that the three envoys or three mediations should harmonise their efforts. They require us to collaborate and coordinate our activities and to work in synergy. Nothing definite has been agreed. All of us agree however that it is important to work together, especially as concerns the Darfurian movements, that my efforts feed into the work of President Mbeki, who as you know for sometime no has not been able to engage with the Darfuri process, but he remains very committed and engaged in facilitating a national solution. So in the coming weeks, it is expected that President Mbeki is able to return to Sudan, for consultations on the way forward. How do we collaborate and work together in a manner that he can bring his tremendous experiences and the full support that he enjoys from the AU to coordinate with us, the Doha process working of course with the facilitation of Qatar and all relevant players in a way that we can move forward and support and enhance the chances of the movements being able to participate in national dialogue and hopefully use this harmonisation as a way to increase the chances of bringing an end to the conflict in Darfur.

Q7.  Salahaddin Ahmed, Radio Afia Darfur and Radio Sawa: How UNAMID looks at the Paris Declaration recently signed between the leader of Uma National Party and the leaders of Revolutionary Front and does the Mission supports it? Secondly, within the beginning of the rainy season, IDP’s and farmers in particular are complaining about insecurity, saying that the mission has no presence in some remote areas particular in Serba Locality, north of West Darfur State and Sudan – Chad border, according to the new mission’s mandate, could the Mission will have presence in those areas?  

A7. JSR Chambas: First of all, I should be honest with you. As we speak now, I have not read the Paris Declaration. I have not seen the document, I have not read it and it’s only prudent that I cannot make any comment or take a position on it, except to repeat my own appeal to all Sudanese political forces, parties and movements to seize the opportunity for national dialogue and I want to ensure that we do have an inclusive and credible national dialogue process which can help to end the wars and other conflicts and give this country a new beginning, a new opportunity to move forward in peace and stability.

Secondly, on the complains from the farmers. We are aware of this situation. The rains have come and this is when people should be able to go back to their farms, to prepare their lands and plant, and hopefully be able to contribute to food security. But yes the challenges of security are there, as I mentioned before. And the truth is that UNAMID by itself cannot, it was not even intended, that UNAMID will be the force which will provide security all over Darfur. You know better than I do that Darfur is very vast and we are not in a position to provide security all over Darfur. That primary responsibility it one of the Government. We are only there to support. To compliment the efforts of Government and we will continue to do that. In that regard, I would want to assure again that wherever we are present we stand ready to work with local authorities, local government, traditional leaders to facilitate dialogue among communities, between the farmers and pastoralists to minimize disputes over land. So that, farmers can take advantage of the good rainy season which we are seeing now to be able to plant and to provide food for the communities and indeed to the whole country.

Q8. Maaz Al-Nugumi, Reuters: It is noticed the escalation and increase of the intertribal conflicts, and as UNAMID’s report refers these are escalating and happening more than conflict between armed movements and Government. So much so that efforts exerted by UNAMID often fail because reconciliations brokered by UNAMID fall apart so soon after making them; and there are factors known to all those interested in Darfur that cause this deterioration ; especially the vast spread of weapons within these tribes, and there were many strong recommendations from the UN and others; there are also clear stipulations in the DDPD to disarm these tribes and the Janjaweeds… so these compilations have become difficult to understand for us… what I wish to be clarified to us.. What are the efforts made by UNAMID to disarm these widespread weapons in Darfur which really represent the direct cause for the breakout of conflicts? And what are the efforts you are doing to disarm militias? And a final question about the demobilization and disarmament and reintegration of the forces who signed the Doha Agreement where there are reports that these didn’t move forward (processes of Disarmament and Reintegration, that is)?

A8. JSR Chambas: The issues raised are going to the heart of the crisis in Darfur. The proliferation of arms and weapons, although these are not the cause of conflict, when you have other triggers of conflict and in an environment where there is such easy acquisition and easy availability of weapons then it becomes difficult to bring conflict under control. That is why ultimately what we ready need, require, is a comprehensive political solution in which wide-scale disarmament, disarmament across all boards, can be undertaken, and we need to continue to work for this kind of scenario.

Of course, under DDPD, as I have told you, there has been some relative progress and LJM [Liberation and Justice Movement] and JEM-Sudan [Justice and Equality Movement-Sudan] are proceeding together with the Government with security arrangements which will include of course disarmament of combatants there, and I know that both LJM and JEM-Sudan, also on the other hand keep reminding Government that DDPD also calls for disarmament of Government militia. So, some limited disarmament is going on. The other day even in South Darfur, the Government of South Darfur was able to engage in limited disarmament, which led to 11,000 weapons being collected. That is a step in the right direction, but we all know that this issue of easy availability of weapons, the proliferation of weapons in Darfur and in other conflict areas always makes it difficult to bring peace and security until we are able to have an environment, a political environment, in which we can move forward with DDR, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. And so that remains a major preoccupation of ours.

Spokesperson: Thank you very much JSR I’m afraid that this concludes our meeting. Thank you for you time and hope to meet you next time in El Fasher.