Darfur, climate change lead issues for Security Council discussion this month

The worsening violence and humanitarian situation in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region, and its implications for neighbouring countries, along with the global impact of climate change, are among the key issues that will dominate Security Council deliberations this month, its President for April said today.

“The priorities: Sudan clearly, and Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR)… There will be an open debate,” Emyr Jones Parry, the Ambassador of the United Kingdom, told a press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York.

“There are lots of priorities on Darfur… it’s not just Darfur: it’s what Darfur means for Sudan, what it means also as a contagion for Chad, for the Central African Republic,” he added, highlighting the need to pursue “three tracks” to try and resolve the crisis.

“To make sure that the humanitarian access is improved and sustained; that the political track involving [UN Special Envoy] Jan Eliasson and [African Union Special Envoy] Salim [Ahmed] Salim is catalysed, that we introduce a greater urgency into that… and on the question of security, we really need to deliver very soon some certainty as to what is to happen as the mandate of AMIS expires on the 30 June.” AMIS is the current AU peacekeeping mission in Sudan.

Mr. Jones Parry said “the basis for a Security Council discussion of those parts of climate change which are relevant to the work of the Security Council” will also be considered.

Turning to Kosovo, the Serbian province that has been run by the UN since 1999, he said he expects a Council mission to visit Belgrade and Pristina sometime this month, although the details had yet to be finalized. The 15-member body started discussing the future of the province yesterday following a UN envoy’s proposal for granting it independence in a phased process.