Expelled U.N. Envoy Set to Leave Sudan

Chief U.N. Envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk of the Netherlands, speaks during a press conference in Khartoum, Sudan in this Thursday, Sept 21, 2006 file photo. The Sudanese government on Sunday Oct. 22, 2006 gave Pronk three days to leave the country, Sudan's official news agency reported whilst giving no reason for the order, but Pronk drew sharp criticism from the Sudanese military this month after writing in a personal Web log that government forces had suffered serious losses recently at the hands of rebels in Darfur. (AP Photo/Abdel Raouf, File) (Abdel Raouf - AP)

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- The chief U.N. envoy to Sudan planned to leave the country Monday after the government ordered him out for saying its forces had suffered two major defeats in fighting in the Darfur region, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

Jan Pronk was scheduled to fly to New York for a meeting with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said spokeswoman Radhia Achouri, who did not give further details.

The departure of Pronk, an outspoken, tireless campaigner for peace in Darfur, could set back efforts to halt the violence in the western region, where fighting between pro-government and rebel forces has recently intensified.

The order issued Sunday for Pronk to leave was the government's second slap at the United Nations in three months. In August, it rejected a U.N. Security Council motion that proposed replacing the understaffed and under-equipped African Union force in Darfur with a much bigger U.N. peacekeeping operation.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would try to call Annan later Monday.

"The situation in Darfur is deteriorating and the international community needs to be able to act there," she said in Washington. She did not elaborate.

Pronk, a former Dutch politician, had written on his personal Web log that the rebels had inflicted two defeats on government troops, causing a loss of morale and the firing of generals.

"Reports speak about hundreds of casualties in each of the two battles, many wounded soldiers and many taken as prisoner," Pronk wrote Oct. 14.

He said the government had responded by deploying more troops and members of the pro-government janjaweed Arab militia, which is widely accused of atrocities.

"This is a dangerous development. Security Council resolutions which forbid armed mobilization are being violated," Pronk added.

The Sudanese military denounced Pronk, accusing him of waging "psychological warfare against the Sudanese army," and a general was quoted Friday as calling for his expulsion.

On Sunday, the Foreign Ministry said Pronk had shown "enmity to the Sudanese government and the armed forces" and gave him 72 hours to leave.