Your Excellency, President of the Security Council,
Your Excellency, Secretary General of the United Nations,
Distinguished members of the Security Council,
Ladies and gentlemen:
First of all we would like to join the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union, H.E. Mr Jean Ping, in thanking you, Mr President, and the Security Council for giving us the opportunity to be here today to reflect on various matters relating to Sudan, starting with the Report of the AU High Level Panel on Darfur, the AUPD.
Similarly we join the Chairperson of the AU Commission in stressing the significance of the partnership between the AU and the United Nations which was pioneered in Darfur in the form of both UNAMID and the Joint Chief Mediator.
As his Excellency Mr. Jean Ping has indicated, the essence of the mandate of the AU High Level Panel on Darfur, theAUPD , was to advise the African Union on what could be done to accelerate the advance towards peace, justice and reconciliation in Darfur.
The Security Council is of course aware that at its October 29 Meeting, the AU Peace and Security Council reconstituted the AUPD as the AU High Level Implementation Panel for Sudan, the AUHIP.
I mention this, Mr President, because much of what we will say will relate to the work of the AUHIP, whose mandate is "to assist in the implementation of all aspects of the AUPD recommendations, as well as to assist the Sudanese parties in the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and other related processes, as part of the democratic transformation of Sudan."
We are certain that the esteemed members of the Security Council are familiar both with the AUPD Report and its Recommendations, as well as the decisions of the AU Peace and Security Council in this regard. We will therefore not discuss the Report in detail, but rather mention what we consider to be a few salient observations.
Of course if the Council should require us to comment on any detail in the Report, we will do so.
(Please see Full_Report)