UN peacekeeping chief visited Kalma camp in South Darfur, with head of AU - and met with GOS VP Minni Minawi in El Fasher, North Darfur

UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy met Thurs 6 Oct 2008 in El Fasher, North Darfur with Government of Sudan's Vice President Minni Minawi, "former" leader of Sudanese rebel group SLA/MM.

Source: Sun 9 Oct 2008 Xinhua report by Sun Yunlong - UN peacekeeping chief meets with Sudanese rebel faction - edited excerpt:

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy met Thursday in El Fasher, North Darfur, with Minni Minawi, leader of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA/MM), one of Sudan's rebel factions - as part of his first official visit to Sudan's Darfur region.

SLA/MM has signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) with the government two years ago, while other rebel factions have yet to do so.

UNAMID gave no details of Le Roy's talks with Minawi, who met with Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha last month, and concertedly announced that they were turning a new page in their commitment to the full implementation of the DPA and the formation of a joint military committee to ensure an end to all hostilities.

At the time, UNAMID deputy head General Henry Anyidoho said that he hoped the announcement would attract the non-signatories of the DPA to join the process in a more comprehensive accord.

Le Roy has already visited Southern Sudan, where the organization is fielding a separate operation -- the 10,000-strong UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) monitoring a 2005 peace agreement that ended the 21-year-long north-south civil war.

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UN chief, with head of AU, visits IDP camps in South Darfur

On Sunday, 12 October 2008, UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy, with head of AU Rodolphe Adada, visited Kalma and other IDP camps in South Darfur, W. Sudan.

Source: Sun 12 October 2008 Sudan Tribune report - Darfur IDPs slam lack of protection by UNAMID - copy:

October 11, 2008 (KHARTOUM) - Darfur displaced slammed the role played by the hybrid peacekeeping force in the protection of civilians in the camps and elsewhere.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy, accompanied by the head of the African Union – United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), Rodolphe Adada visited today the internally Displaced People camps in south Darfur states.

In a meeting they held with the IDPs representatives in Kalma camp, they criticised the lack of protection for the civilians inside the camp. They said that the UNAMID had failed to bring security to the IDPs. They further asked for the deployment of Western peacekeepers with the necessary military capabilities to deter any attack on Darfur camps.

Le Roy visited the graveyard where are buried the dozens of displaced killed by the Sudanese authorities last August.

UNAMID was deployed at the start of this year and will become the largest UN peacekeeping operation with some 26,000 personnel at full strength. Currently it has some 10,000 troops and police officers on the ground and still lacks essential equipment, including helicopters.

Hussein Abu Sharati the IDPs and refugees spokesperson told Sudan tribune they presented a memorandum to Le Roy compromising 47 demands.

Abu Sharati said, as IPDs, we are still asking for the disarmament of the Janjaweed and to re-establish security before any talks.

"We do not support any talks with the Sudanese government before the total arrest of violence. Still in the camps there is no security and the so called peacekeepers are there."

Abu Sharati called on the International Community to not freeze the indictment of the Sudanese President. "Any move in this direction means carte blanche from the U.N." he said.

While in El Fasher, Le Roy also met with local civil society representatives, whom he referred to as “natural allies” in the peace process in the region. He also met with Minni Minawi the former rebel leader turned senior Presidential Assistant. He discussed with him the implementation of Abuja agreement.

Le Roy has already visited Southern Sudan where the Organization is fielding a separate operation – the 10,000-strong UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) monitoring a 2005 peace agreement that ended the 21-year-long north-south civil war, which killed at least 2 million people and displaced 4.5 million others. (ST)