Sudan denies expelled aid groups allowed to return

Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 9:56 PM Posted by Beijing News


Sudan on Sunday disputed a declaration by UN humanitarian chief John Holmes that it would allow expelled aid groups to return to Darfur, insisting the agencies must have "new names and new logos."

Sudan expelled 13 international aid groups in March after the International Criminal Court ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Omar al-Beshir over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Khartoum accused the NGOs of spying and working for the ICC, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon describing the expulsions as "an extremely negative development that puts well over one million people at life-threatening risk."

On Thursday Holmes said that four of the aid groups were to resume their operations.

The "possibility of return is there for all the organisations which were expelled and some of them already have taken advantage of it," Holmes said.

"They now got very recently new registrations and will be restarting their operations."

Holmes said four groups -- CARE, Mercy Corps, Save the Children and PADCO, an international development consulting firm -- had already "this week completed initial registration processes in Khartoum."

But Holmes' statements suggested that the NGOs were the very same that had been expelled and were now going to resume their work, provoking a sharp reaction from Sudanese authorities.

What Sudan had accepted was to host "new NGOs" with "new names" and "new logos," according to the head of Sudan's Humanitarian Affairs Commission Hassab Mohammed Abdelrahman.

"The government has no intention of allowing the expelled organisations to return to operate once again in Sudan," Abdelrahman said in a statement.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the organisation Holmes is in charge of, issued a later statement clarifying that the four NGOs Holmes referred to "should not be characterised as 'returning'."

"While from related organisational families, they are not the same, and have been registered in Sudan as new international NGO implementing groups and authorised to open new operations in the Sudan on that basis."

Mercy Corps also issued a statement that it "is not resuming operations in Northern Sudan. Mercy Corps Scotland, a UK-based charity, has registered to work in Sudan."

And CARE USA said that Holmes' statements implied that it would be "allowed to return to Sudan. This however is not the case. CARE USA's registration in Sudan remains void, and CARE USA will not resume operations in North Sudan."

Sudan mulled several options in response to the ICC's charges against Beshir, its first against a serving head of state, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, including expelling diplomats

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur rose up against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in February 2003.

Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.







Schalit

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