UN will support Sudan's new Government of National Unity, Annan says

The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) will do its utmost to support Sudan's new Government of National Unity as it addresses the enormous challenges of establishing a durable peace and bringing economic development after decades of civil war, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today as he welcomed the Government's swearing-in.

In a statement issued by his spokesman, the Secretary-General also noted that as the new Government, stemming from a peace agreement with southern Sudan, was beginning its work, the parties to the conflict in Darfur have convened in Abuja, Nigeria, under African Union (AU) mediation, to negotiate an end to the terrible conflict that has caused so much suffering in that troubled region.

"The Secretary-General calls on participants in the Abuja negotiations to apply themselves fully to bring an end to the suffering of the people of Darfur by reaching an agreement during this round of talks and by the end of this year."

In his monthly report to the Security Council on Darfur, meanwhile, Mr. Annan said the region's civilian population must be better protected because they had fallen victim to both attacks from armed groups and forced relocation by the previous Government.

"One major issue is the protection of internally displaced persons(IDPs). On some occasions, internally displaced persons who have returned to their villages of origin to cultivate their fields have been attacked, resulting in their re-displacement back to the refugee camps," he said.

The Government's military and military police forcefully entered the Bella site near Saraf Omra, North Darfur, on 15 and 16 August and destroyed dwellings, wounding eight people in the process, he said.

"Once again, despite the agreements with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations, the Government failed to notify the international humanitarian community of its intentions," Mr. Annan said.

The establishment of the new Government of National Unity and the normalization of the situation in the rest of the Sudan offered tremendous promise for Darfur, he said

"These developments offer the parties an unprecedented opportunity to translate the present relative stability in Darfur into a lasting settlement, anchored in the new national political order," Mr. Annan said.