28 January 2010 - President Bashir pledges full support to UNAMID

31 Jan 2010

28 January 2010 - President Bashir pledges full support to UNAMID




UNAMID PR / 003-2010

PRESS RELEASE


President Bashir pledges full support to UNAMID

This afternoon, UNAMID JSR Ibrahim Gambari had an audience in Khartoum with President Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir, who assured him of the full support of the Government of Sudan, in his new assignment.

Earlier in the day, JSR Gambari had a series of meetings with the Senior Assistant to the President and Chairman of the SLA/M, Minni Minnawi; the Assistant to the President, Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie; and, the Minister of the Interior, Ibrahim Hamid. Following the talks with the President and the meetings with different senior officials, Mr. Gambari addressed the press at the Council of Ministers Media Centre, which has been inaugurated today, and delivered the following statement:

“I have been in Sudan for almost one week to take up my appointment as Joint Special Representative of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur and Head of UNAMID. I have had several very good meetings with Ministers and the Wali of North Darfur, but the highlight of my stay so far is a meeting with His Excellency, President Al Bashir, which I have just concluded.

I’ve had a very good meeting with His Excellency the President. We covered the situation of Darfur: the political process, the security aspect and the Chad-Sudanese relations as a factor in trying to ensure peace in Darfur.

We can now move from the focus on challenges of the deployment to the implementation of the core mandate of UNAMID. My own priorities are as follows:

1. To support the Bassole process, to support the work of President Mbeki and to come up with some ideas on how we can harmonize for these efforts.

2. My second priority is on the security and welfare, not only of UNAMID staff and personnel and those of the international NGOs that are working with us, but also enhancing and contributing to the security of the civilian population in Darfur, so that conditions will be created for people from IDP camps to return to their homes. We can then move to the phase of recovery and development.

3. My third and final priorit