Date: 24/09/2010
Source: The Office of Thabo Mbeki
Title: AUHIP: Mbeki: Speech by the African Union High Level Implementation Panel Chairperson, at the UN High Level Meeting on Sudan, New York

Your Excellencies:

This meeting on Sudan confirms that Africa and the rest of the world care a great deal about the Sudanese nation and its citizens. The statements we have heard this afternoon confirm that the African Union and the United Nations and their member states stand firmly behind the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and its faithful implementation, and also share a common commitment to help achieve peace, justice and reconciliation for the people of Darfur.

Those who have spoken ahead of us, including their Excellencies the UN Secretary General, the Chairperson of the AU Commission, the First Vice President of Sudan and President of the Government of South Sudan and the Vice President of Sudan, have already identified what needs to be done successfully to address the challenges ahead.

Accordingly we speak mainly to emphasise some of the points that have already been made.

In this regard we would like to take advantage of this important meeting to express our sincere appreciation of the sustained and unreserved cooperation extended to our Panel by the Governments of Sudan and South Sudan, as well as the NCP and the SPLM. We are also privileged to enjoy similar relations with UNMIS and its head, SRSG Haile Menkerios, UNAMID and its head JSR Ibrahim Gambari, as well as the Special Envoys such as US Envoy Gen Scott Gration.

This has created the possibility for all of us to interact with one another virtually on a daily basis to attend to the many detailed matters that have to be addressed to ensure the faithful implementation of the CPA and the resolution of the conflict in Darfur.

We would also like to assure H.E. Mr Ben Mkapa of our readiness to extend such support as may be necessary and appropriate to him and the important UN Panel on the Referenda in Sudan he has agreed to lead.

Similarly we would like to commend to this meeting the International Sudan Consultative Forum established at the May 8 meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which is jointly convened by the African Union and the United Nations. We consider this to be a vitally important mechanism which enables the international community to coordinate its activities relating to Sudan, minimising the possibility of uncoordinated interventions which would hinder rather than help the Sudanese processes.

We would also like to assure this important meeting of our sensitivity to the sense of urgency which attaches to what has to be done to support the people of Sudan as they confront the challenges this meeting has been addressing, a sense of urgency which must also inform the engagements of the Sudanese parties.

In this context we will therefore continue actively to interact with these parties to help ensure that the outstanding matters are addressed. These include:

• the South Sudan Referendum;
• a holistic resolution to the issue of Abyei;
• the demarcation of the North-South border;
• the Popular Consultations in South Kordofan and Blue Nile;
• the Post-Referendum Arrangements;
• the security arrangements relating to North and South Sudan;
• improved security in Darfur;
• the voluntary return of refugees and IDPs to their homes, and the related early recovery and development programmes;
• justice and reconciliation in Darfur; and,
• the conclusion of a Darfur Global Political Agreement, owned by the people of Darfur as a whole.

The leaders and people of Sudan confront difficult challenges which will have a profound impact on their country and their lives, and indeed on the rest of Africa. We trust that this important meeting will convey to them an unequivocal message of support, as well as the attendant incentives that would convey to them a message of hope about a future of peace, development, a better life for all, mutually beneficial cooperation among themselves, and normal relations with the rest of the world.

In conclusion, Mr Chairman, let me emphasise Africa's absolute commitment to the people of Sudan. Africa will do its utmost to ensure that commitments to the CPA and to a resolution of the conflict in Darfur are honoured in full. The Sudanese are a cherished part of us, as Africans, and will remain so, whether they choose to be one country or two.