November 9, 2009 (PARIS) – The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) issued a strong worded statement today accusing Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur of obstructing its work.
The press release come following an incident by which SLM forces loyal to Al-Nur held a UN plane briefly after mistakenly believing it belonged to US special envoy Scott Gration.
The SLA-Nur were bracing for a meeting Gration organized with defecting commanders in areas they controlled and warned the US official to stay away else they would consider it “a direct interference in the Movements’ affairs”.
UNAMID said that elements from the rebel group surrounded one of their helicopters with a field assessment team at Deribat, in South Darfur for three hours before allowing it to take off.
“It is unacceptable that the Mission’s personnel have again been targeted and threatened in the course of their persistent efforts to assist in restoring peace and security to Darfur. Deliberate attempts to obstruct the operations of the Mission are inimical to attaining overall peace and stability in Darfur and will have an adverse impact on efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in the region, and are totally unacceptable” UNAMID said.
“UNAMID strongly deplores the periodic harassment and detention of its personnel and stresses that it will not tolerate any attempts at intimidation or attacks on its personnel that are aimed at thwarting the progress of the peace process”.
But the SLA chief dismissed the UNAMID statement saying the latter is to blame for the “unfortunate” incident.
“They [UNAMID] know very well that it is our normal business practice to hold their personnel or obstruct their work. This has never happened before and our forces have a code for situations like this that they adhere to,” Al-Nur told Sudan Tribune.
“UNAMID is to blame for not communicating their route before taking off so that SLA can anticipate their arrival. These are our rules and they are very clear. Had they done this, the incident would not have happened” he added.
But the Darfur peacekeepers countered Al-Nur’s remarks saying that “the coordinates of all unamid flights are systematically communicated to the concerned parties prior to any trip”.
(ST)
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