SUDAN: UNHCR chief calls for more support for Darfur peace process

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

NAIROBI, 25 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, has called on the international community to increase its support for the Darfur negotiations in order to bring peace to the strife-torn western Sudanese region, a spokesperson said.

"The main job of the UN here is to try to force things in order to have peace," Guterres said on Wednesday in Darfur, referring to the peace talks between the Sudanese government and the two Darfur rebel movements, scheduled to resume on 15 September in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

The refugee chief was speaking on the second day of a 10-day visit to the region, intended to highlight the financial needs of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other international agencies.

"The international community must give more money to support the peace process," Kitty McKinsey, regional spokesperson for UNHCR, told IRIN on Thursday.

"It is a turning point. There is a window of opportunity to end this conflict and the international community has to capitalise on it," she added.

On Thursday, Guterres visited Iridimi refugee camp in eastern Chad, where he thanked the Chadian people for the "remarkable hospitality" they had shown to the more than 200,000 Sudanese refugees who fled the fighting in Darfur and found shelter in the neighbouring country’s 12 camps.

"Even if the camps in Chad are well-designed and operated, living in a camp for ever is not a life and not a lasting solution for the refugees," McKinsey noted.

Although UNHCR was helping people re-establish their lives in 10 Darfur villages that were deemed safe, she added, Guterres had been adamant that because Darfur continued to be insecure, now was not the right time for a large-scale return of refugees from Chad.

"To be able to go home, people need stable conditions to re-build their villages, but these conditions, right now, are just not there," McKinsey said. "We have not seen any movement of people going back to Darfur yet."

The UNHCR chief is due to meet Chadian President Idriss Deby on Friday and thereafter visit southern Sudan, where he will inspect preparations for the return of refugees, including the re-building of schools and hospitals and the demining of roads.

McKinsey noted that UNHCR anticipated an influx of returning southern Sudanese refugees following the signing of a peace agreement for the separate north-south conflict in January.

"The same that happened in the south, we want to happen in Darfur - peace, disarmament and the possibility for displaced people to choose whether to return to their homes," Guterres said.

UNHCR estimates that more than four million people remain displaced by conflict in southern Sudan.

Remarking that he was a happy man because he had a house, a home and a family, Guterres said he wanted the same for the two million people who had been forced out of their homes in Darfur.

The war in Darfur began in February 2003 and pits Sudanese government troops and militias allegedly allied to the government, against rebels fighting to end what they describe as the marginalisation of and discrimination against the region's inhabitants by the state.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said earlier this month that some 3.2 million people in the region were in need of assistance, includng some 1.9 million internally displaced persons.

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