Joint mission to assess government plans for Darfur

A team of United Nations and Sudanese government officials will visit the troubled Darfur region of western Sudan from 26 to 29 August, to assess progress Khartoum has made in meeting its pledges to restore calm in the area, the UN said. "The JIM (Joint Implementation Mechanism) will visit Darfur to make a final assessment for the implementation of the Darfur plan of action," Radhia Achouri, spokesperson for the UN mission in Sudan, told IRIN on Thursday. “The JIM will thereafter report on its findings to the [UN] Secretary-General who will report to the Security Council.” The JIM was set up by Khartoum and the UN in July, to monitor the implementation of commitments made by the two sides to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. It is co-chaired by the Secretary-General's special representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, and the Sudanese foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail. Ahead of the trip to Darfur, the Sudanese government was due on Thursday to provide UN officials with details of steps it intended to take to fulfil the pledges contained in its plan of action for Darfur, at a meeting of the JIM in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. "The detailed plan is expected to include a list of Janjawid militias, and plans to instruct the militias to give up their weapons," the spokesperson told IRIN. The meeting would be the fourth since the JIM was set up. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced by conflict in Darfur, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Most fled their home villages because of Janjawid attacks or fighting between government forces and two rebel groups. Another 200,000 Darfurians have sought refuge in neighbouring Chad, where they are living rough in camps near the border. The Sudanese government drew up its action plan in response to a Security Council timetable for improving the situation in Darfur. The Council had said in a resolution adopted on 30 July that it would consider measures - including economic sanctions - if the Sudanese government did not make progress on commitments to disarm the Janjawid militias and restore security in Darfur. The foreign minister presented the government’s action plan in Khartoum on 13 July, during the third meeting of the JIM. It included "a list of areas that the government proposed could be made safe and secure within 30 days." Meanwhile, the UN on Wednesday urged the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, which controls parts of southern Sudan to reach an agreement with Khartoum to end the civil war it has fought in the region against the government, since 1983. This conflict has displaced more than 3.5 million people, forcing many of them to flee to neighbouring countries. According to the UN, some of those displaced who had returned voluntarily to the south, reported that soldiers and armed militias had sexually abused returnees, demanded taxes and prevented some men and boys from crossing over to the south. Incidents of looting, forced labor and detentions had also occurred. OCHA said on Thursday that about 100,000 displaced people have returned to the south this year. Another 300,000 could make the journey after the rainy season ends in September, but they would be returning to areas in Bahr el-Ghazal, Equatoria and Juba, which were extremely unsuitable for returnees.