Sudan dismisses US Rice’s remarks on arms embargo violation

Sudan dismisses US Rice’s remarks on arms embargo violation
March 6, 2010 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government discounted statements made by US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice saying that she is isolated in her positions within the UN Security Council (UNSC).

On Thursday Rice said there is a continuous pattern of weapons flowing to Darfur, acts of sexual and gender-based violence committed with impunity, military over-flights and offensive actions.
She further said that “this behavior does not suggest a new willingness on the part of Sudan to fully engage in the peace process”.
“The blatant disregard of the will of the council is undermining stability rather than fostering it, which was the aim of the (sanctions) regime in the first place,” Rice said.
A UN panel of experts established by the UNSC to monitor these violations has submitted several reports but China’s defense of its ally Sudan has stalled any attempt to take any action in response.
The spokesman of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, Muawiya Osman Khalid, said that Rice is at odds with “objective parties at the US administration itself that are concerned with supporting the ongoing process Darfur and solving the root causes of the issue”.
He added that the “personal hostility of Rice to Sudan prevented her to recognize that the issue of arms in Darfur cannot be solved through sanctions committees, but through a comprehensive peace agreement that can be reached by the ongoing peace process in Doha”.
Khalid accused Rice of forcing Sudan into the UNSC agenda “so that she can bash Sudan” adding that her “deceptive statements” confirms her continuous hostility to Sudan government.
“Rice is a short-sighted personality whose artificial concern with Darfur did not motivate her to appreciate the so far adopted peace steps or the framework agreement signed with the Justice and Equality Movement that was welcomed by the whole world”.
Last week the Inner City Press UN based reporter in New York said that the US envoy told her P-5 peers at the UN Security Council (UNSC) in a private meeting that the Doha accord between Khartoum and JEM is a “mere truce between two Islamists factions”.
The Sudanese diplomat said that Rice also did not know that the recent fighting in Jebel Marra between Sudanese army and Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) of Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur is an inter-rebel dispute and that Khartoum has nothing to do with it.
He called on Rice to focus her efforts in convincing this rebel faction to join the current peace negotiations in Doha.
Sudan’s army denied any fighting is going on in Jebel Marra, a stronghold of Abdel-Wahid but a UN source told Reuters on Monday that between 140 and 400 civilians were feared to have been killed and thousands displaced.
(ST)