Near verbatim transcription of the question-and-answer session at the press conference by UNAMID Joint Special Representative Mohamed Ibn Chambas

Khartoum, 23 January 2014

Question 1: In terms of protecting civilians, what has UNAMID been able to do to stop or make any comment about or action against the offensive military flights which the Sudanese Air Force regularly conducts in violation of resolution 1591 and which had led to civilian deaths, such as on 29 November and 20 October, as mentioned by Ban Ki-moon? Thank you.

JSR Chambas: What UNAMID has done has been to fulfil its reporting function. On a daily, weekly and monthly basis, the Mission submits reports on clashes between armed movements and the Government, and, as I mentioned, in the past year of tribal conflicts in the region. And, in the context of that, we provide detailed information on the nature of the military clashes, including bombings, provided we are able to establish those through our own means. And we have reported those both to the AU (African Union) and to the UN (United Nations) as we are required and mandated to do.

Question 2: There is a new security reality in the region, with the outbreak of the war in South Sudan and in Central African Republic, what are UNAMID’s plans to deal with such developments? And what are the consequences or effect of this new security situation on the work of UNAMID? What is your evaluation of the security situation in Darfur after 10 years of conflict?

JSR Chambas: Let me first take the second question, the evaluation of the security situation in Darfur. Today we have a situation where there are continuing conflicts or clashes between armed movements and the Government of Sudan armed forces. We also have the new phenomenon of tribal conflicts and in the last few months we have seen an increased wave of criminality and banditry. The consequences of this have been an increase in numbers of those displaced in Darfur. This is what leads me to conclude that after 10 years it is evident that the military solution is not the way forward in Darfur and that all must be done to seek a negotiated political solution to the conflicts and that we need to intensity our efforts to mediate between the different ethnic groups that are fighting with one other. In a nutshell, the security situation worsened in the last year and as a result more people have been displaced.  We’ve seen the number of displaced increase by as many as 350,000 and some people even say as many as 400,000 persons.

Now, to come back to the regional situation — the regional context largely improved for most of 2013. We saw for instance that Libya, which used to be a source of arms to Darfur, was no longer the case. We saw much improved relations between Sudan and Chad, to the point where Chad is now playing a very active role, for instance in ensuring security along its long common frontier through the joint border patrols with Sudan. We have seen improved relations between South Sudan and Sudan after incidents involving the closure of the pipeline, things improved and the two countries began to work closely together. Now these rather positive developments are being undermined by a very unstable situation in Central Africa Republic and, even more so, by the conflict in South Sudan. Regarding the impact in the short term, we have not witnessed any direct impact of these conflicts in Darfur. There has been a lot of concern, especially regarding the Central Africa Republic. We have remained vigilant, looking out to see if there would be movements of fighters across that common frontier and we have not witnessed any significant movement. This doesn’t mean we should let down our guard. UNAMID will continue to keep an eye on that common frontier as we would not wish to see any movements come across it and further destabilize Darfur. Also, on the common border between Darfur and South Sudan, we have not witnessed any activity to show that there is an eminent threat to Darfur as a result of the conflict there. But, of course, our wish is that the IGAD (Inter-Governmental Authority for Development) and the AU and the international community will succeed very quickly to bring the fighting to an end, achieve a ceasefire in South Sudan and that the negotiations in Addis will bring the two sides together to end this conflict. I should also commend the positive role of Sudan. We have seen that President Bashir has personally been to Juba to seek a way in which he can play a role in bringing the two sides together. And, as he said during that trip, there is no military solution to the crisis there. Much in the same way that we have always insisted, that in these kinds of situations it is better for brothers and sisters to sit together to find a lasting solution to whatever divided them instead of turning  to military confrontation. Thank you.

Question 3: Does the downsizing in UNAMID’s strength mean that the mandate will end soon?

JSR Chambas: No. The mandate of UNAMID is a reflection of the commitment of the African Union and the international community as a whole, through the United Nations Security Council to support the people of Sudan, to support the people of Darfur to bring about lasting peace to Darfur. And, as I said, the security situation has not improved over the last year, it has worsened. And, in view of that, the African Union and the United Nations continues to stand by its commitment to be in Darfur to provide protection to the vulnerable civilians populations and, at the same time, through mediation to work to bring onboard the non-signatory movements to the peace process, the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), so that we can begin to see the return of peace and justice in Darfur. As for the downsizing you talked about, this has not in any way affected the operational capacities of the movement and, indeed, what we have done it is to build in flexibility in deployment, with a view to achieve more efficiency even with a reduced number of personnel. And, this is the way in which we will continue to operate.

Question 4: As you said, you met movement leaders in Arusha and in Addis, do you soon expect a meeting between the Government and the rebel leaders?

JSR Chambas: That should be the way forward, because any meaningful dialogue at this point has to be between the movements and the Government. What we have simply been doing has been trying to lay the ground, trying to find out ways in which we can create an opportunity for the two sides to meet. If you look at the statement from the movements the last time they indicated that they would be willing to discuss humanitarian cessation of hostilities. We would hope that offers an opportunity to create a forum, a platform for the two sides to look at this possibility. However, I would hope also to go beyond that, not just humanitarian cessation of hostilities, why can’t we talk about cessation of hostilities? Why can’t we use that opportunity to bring the two sides together, to build confidence among themselves. Yes, the humanitarian situation in Darfur requires that we find a way to halt hostilities so that humanitarian agencies and humanitarian services can be provided to the populations. But we can go beyond that, we can challenge ourselves, and the movements and the Government can challenge themselves beyond just discussing humanitarian cessation of hostilities. And, as Mediation, we want to create an opportunity for the two sides to begin to explore these issues and the wider issues, especially how do we bring onboard the movements to the DDPD.

Question 5:  After 10 years of the mandate of UNAMID instead of achieving something on the ground, in the security situation, UNAMID became part of the conflict itself and it has been a target of the different parties and has suffered losses here and there. Is UNAMID part of this conflict now? Also, you talked about achievements of justice in Darfur. The justice portfolio is a very thorny and complicated one in Darfur. Not only the last prosecutor, but before him so many prosecutors were appointed, but nothing has been achieved. What is your vision about this?

JSR Chambas: Thank you very much. On the first part of the question, has UNAMID become part of the conflict? The answer obviously is “no”. We are not part of the conflict and we cannot be part of the conflict. UNAMID has been given a mandate by the AU and the UN to be in Darfur to protect the civilian population and that is what we will continue to do. But, we are operating in an environment which is difficult from a geographical point of view and given the security situation which I have depicted where there is continuing fighting between rebel movements and the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces), as well as the outbreak of tribal clashes. We have seen an unfortunate number of our personnel who have lost their lives — 16 last year and that is precisely because of the worsened security situation. And we saw in the past year so many different elements, many of them with very opportunistic objectives to acquire vehicles and arms. And so often our troops fell into ambushes, and you know, even the best military forces have very little defences against a surprise attack. In spite of this we have continued to operate vigorously and to ensure that our core mandate of the protection of civilians — many of whom live in IDP camps and urban centres — is largely fulfilled and we will continue to do so. We cannot take sides on this, we do not take sides, we are a peacekeeping force and we will maintain that neutrality.

On the second issue, we are in the process now; we are in discussion with the Ministry of Justice and with the Special Prosecutor to agree on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to be able to deploy AU and UN observers to the special courts and to monitor the work of the Special Prosecutor. These talks are proceeding with good cooperation from the Ministry of Justice, the Minister himself, Minister Dousa has been very forthcoming and very supportive of this initiative. And, on my visit to Addis Ababa next week to attend the AU summit, this is one of the issues that I will discuss with the AU Commission, the modalities to finalize this memorandum of understanding. I expect that in the coming months we shall conclude this MoU and that will enable the AU and the UN to have their observers on the ground to follow up and to monitor the work of the Special Prosecutor and the special courts. And at that time I hope that we will be able to see some real progress on this front, because justice is important, and it is important we are able to build the local capacity to administer justice and to fight impunity. Thank you.

Question 6: My question is on the development projects that you mentioned. Have donors came through with their pledges and how much funding has the country received for the projects?

JSR Chambas: First, the Government of Sudan released its first tranche of contributions for the development of Darfur. And this has been sufficiently covered in the media. We know that the Darfur Regional Authority launched bids for a number of projects and the latest information we have is that at least 300 of them are now in the implementation phase. That is a good beginning. Regarding the projects in the context of the Darfur Development Strategy, the partners continue to show a lot of commitment. Indeed, the board of governors met and only this morning I was in consultations with the office of the Deputy Prime Minister and it is envisaged that in the first part of April there will be a follow-up meeting of the board of governors for the Darfur Development Strategy implementation. Yes, there is initial funding. I can confirm that at least 500 million has been deblocked by the Government of Qatar. That is a significant amount to start with. An additional 88 million has also been deblocked for UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) kind of quick-start projects and the UNDP has identified these projects working with various agencies, funds and programmes, and local NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and with UNAMID, and we believe that these 88 projects can be started and implemented during the coming year. So there is some movement on that front. What I cannot deny is the fact that we need peace; a peaceful environment in which the different partners and others who would want to support, can be able to go to Darfur and to work without any threats to their personal lives and to their security as a whole. So the two have to go hand in hand and that is why it is important that we begin to see some movement also in negotiations, in direct dialogue between the Government and the movements and to impress upon them that the time has come to give peace a chance and to begin to implement these development projects which can improve the lives of the people of Darfur. Thank you.

Question 7: In the last meeting with the non-signatory movements, Abulwahid Mohammed Nur’s movement was not present. Are there any efforts to bring him and his movement onboard?

JSR Chambas: Yes. We will not relent in our efforts to reach out to all the non-signatory movements. And we do not take “no” for an answer. We will keep knocking at their door, we will keep reaching out to them and, indeed, that is the case with Mr. Abdulwahid. We have maintained some contact with him and we intend to arrange personal visits with him to impress upon him the need to join the peace process, to give peace a chance in Darfur, and to create conditions in which all of them can come home, hopefully to participate in the national dialogue that the Government of Sudan is also planning to hold. All Sudanese including opposition in arms would be able to participate in this dialogue. We will continue to reach out to all movements, including SLA/Abdulwahid. Thank you.

Question 8: You spoke about some observers that will be deployed to monitor the special courts in Darfur. Are they going to be hybrid courts as some reports revealed before? Also, there are some allegations by some rebel movements that there are some strange diseases in Darfur because of bombardment and some illegal weapons that have been used in Darfur by Government troops. Did you investigate these allegations?

JSR Chambas: First of all, these allegations have not been brought to our attention. And although we do not work directly in the health field, there are many other UN agencies, funds and programmes in Darfur, and NGOs; and this has not been brought to our attention. Of course, if it is brought, it will be of concern not only to us, but also to the Government and proper investigations will be done. But I’m not aware of this.

On the second part, let me clarify that the observers that we are talking about, this is in the context of the provisions of the DDPD, which calls for AU and UN observers in the special courts. So, this is not about setting up hybrid courts. It is about being able to have observers to monitor the procedures and the processes to ensure that they meet minimum international standards and to work with these courts within the context of strengthening their capacity. It’s not in the context of a blame game. We want to be able to work with these courts and to provide the necessary support to build their capacity to administer justice in the fight against impunity in Darfur.  The local capacity should be strengthened and this is simply the context in which we will operate and, as I told you, we have had a number of meetings with the Ministry of Justice which has given us cooperation and we are very satisfied with the way things are proceeding so far.

Thank you very much. And once again all the best and I’m sure we will have another opportunity not too long in the future. Thank you.

Read here the opening statement made by the JSR at the press conference.