UN APOLOGIZES TO SUDAN OVER REPORT LEAKING - NEWSPAPER
Saturday 5 May 2007.
May 4, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The United Nations apologized officially to Sudan for leaking the report published last month in the New York Times, which accused Khartoum of flying weapons into conflict-ridden Darfur in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, a news report said yesterday .
A plane in Darfur, painted like a United Nations craft, in a photo from a confidential report on Sudan’s involvement in the regional conflict.
Sudan’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem told Alray Alaam newspaper on Thursday May 3 that Sudan’s mission to the UN had received an official letter from the UN Security Council Sanctions committee in which it expressed its apology and regret for the leaking of the report .
He added that the committee has pledged not to repeat leaking confidential reports.
The committee said in its apology that it had submitted the whole issue to the committee of documents and procedures to avoid repetition of what happened, besides setting new principles to prevent leaking of information; hailing at the same time the existing cooperation with Sudan.
The Sudanese envoy told Alray Alaam that the apology represents a clear condemnation to those who leaked the report.
The report, compiled by a panel of experts charged with assisting the Security Council’s Sudan Sanctions Committee in monitoring compliance with resolutions on Darfur, was leaked to the media on April 17 by a diplomat on the committee.
The panel, which includes all 15 members of the Security Council, has decided not to make the report public after objections were raised by three member states.
The experts, in their report, accused the Sudanese government of transporting weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment into Darfur without prior authorization from the sanctions committee. The report also alleged that the Sudanese government has painted military aircraft white to disguise them as UN planes.
Sudan had rejected the panel’s allegations and described it as "fabrications" and "a cowardly attempt" to overshadow the government’s approval on Monday of the first significant U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur.
The Sudanese ambassador Abdalhaleem told the press that Sudan had requested an urgent investigation of the panel allegations.
(Sudan Tribune)
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