Pekka Haavisto explains resignation from EU Darfur post

Special representative disappointed with moderate stance of EU

print this

Green League presidential candidate Pekka Haavisto says that he resigned from the post of EU Special Representative to Sudan in 2007 because some member states wanted him to take on a more moderate role in the Darfur peace process.
      Helsingin Sanomat asked Haavisto about the matter after the German-US Atlantic Community think tank reported that Haavisto, who was appointed to the post in 2005, had exceeded his authority, leading to his resignation in the spring of 2007. In the same year Haavisto became the UN’s Senior Advisor in the Darfur peace process.
      The report emphasises that the assessment is that of the writer, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the think tank or the EU. The report dates back to 2010, but the matter has emerged only now, after Haavisto became candidate for the Finnish presidency.
     
Haavisto told Helsingin Sanomat that he held intense discussions in late 2006 with Javier Solana, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU.
      “I understood on the basis of the discussions that the EU had reason to withdraw from active peace mediation work, and to leave it to other players. And as this was the case I decided to run in the parliamentary elections of 2007”, he says.
     
According to Teemu Tanner, chief of the Political Department of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Haavisto did not overstep his mandate in Sudan. In 2007 Tanner served as the Finnish representative in the EU’s political and security committee. Special representatives are required to report to the committee.
      Tanner also says that the EU member states were satisfied with Haavisto’s activities.
      Erkki Tuomioja (Social Democratic Party), who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2007, and who holds the post again, agrees with Tanner’s assessment. In an e-mail to Helsingin Sanomat, Tuomioja says that Haavisto wanted to be “more than just a representative figure waving the EU sign, with a mission to be present”. He also praised Haavisto’s active role in establishing and maintaining contact among the parties to the conflict.
     
Tuomioja’s view is that Haavisto quit the post because of personality conflicts with Solana.
      Haavisto says that this was not the case. “It was my impression that Solana probably heard some criticism about the EU’s active role from member states, whose role in Sudan was important. After my successor took over, the EU took a much lower profile in the matter, and this was to the liking of these countries.”
     
A cable leaked by Wikileaks is currently circulating on the internet, according to which the US Embassy in Sudan had doubts about Haavisto’s credibility in dealing with the Darfur crisis as a UN advisor.
      The reason for the doubts was Haavisto’s failure to move permanently to Sudan.
      “The criticism concerned the time of my appointment. I was asked how I plan to handle the issue if I am not in [the Sudanese capital] Khartoum. My answer was that the guerrillas are not there either. Ultimately I spent the entire summer of 2007 in the field, and possibly five days in Helsinki.”
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Haavisto: Afghan and Darfur operations do not rule each other out (10.8.2007)
  UN asks Finnish MP to go to Darfur (30.5.2007)
  Finnish MP Pekka Haavisto to hold talks with warring sides in Somalia conflict (18.11.2008)

See also:
  Haavisto: Afghan and Darfur operations do not rule each other out (10.8.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat