 UNITED NATIONS - UN chief Kofi Annan on Tuesday deplored Sudan’s decision to bar UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland from visiting its strife-torn Darfur region. “The Secretary General regrets that .... Jan Egeland was not permitted by the Government of Sudan to visit Darfur,” Annan’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
| I'm confused, does he deplore it or regret it? Makes a difference, ya know ... |
“The pressing and urgent humanitarian requirements of Darfur are a priority for the United Nations and coordination efforts to sustain this large program were at the centre of Mr. Egeland’s visit,” he added. Dujarric said Annan would try to raise the issue with Sudanese President Omar Al Beshir.
| Just ask Omar to cut you a little slack, Kofi ... |
Meanwhile Egeland, the UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, on Tuesday canceled plans to visit Darfur refugees in Chad after Sudan denied him overflight rights.
A day after protesting Khartoum’s refusal to allow him to visit Darfur itself, Egeland said Sudan had now quashed his plans to see the refugees by denying him permission to use Sudanese airspace to travel to neighboring Chad. “I have been denied rights to fly over Darfur to visit refugees in Chad,” Egeland told AFP by phone from Rumbek, a town in southern Sudan where he met with Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol on Tuesday.
“We have now called off the visit to Chad because the foreign minister told me the government could not allow me overflight rights,” Egeland said, adding that he would fly to the Kenyan capital Nairobi to consider next steps.
He blasted the Sudanese government, which he said was deliberately “obstructing” his efforts to raise international attention to the worsening situation in Darfur and deteriorating conditions for the refugees in Chad. “The president of Sudan is responsible for all of this ... denying me access to those two regions,” he said.
| Perhaps Omar has concluded that you guys are a bunch of powerless bozos whom he can safely ignore? |
Egeland pointed out that his Norwegian nationality had been raised as an issue by the authorities since the global crisis that flared up in January between Europe and the Muslim world over cartoons deemed offensive to the Prophet Mohammed and first carried by Scandinavian newspapers.
| Well sure, ya can't trust a herring-eater as far as you can throw him ... |
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