UN
Claims Medevac
to Abyei Was
from Kadugli,
Not S. Sudan
as UK
Said
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 5 --
The UN's lack
of
transparency
about the
delay of
medevac
helicopter
transport from
Abyei of three
peacekeepers
who
died after a
landmine
explosion grew
worse on
Friday,
highlighting
the UN's lack
of planning
for the UNISFA
peacekeeping
mission of
Ethiopian
soldiers it is
paying from in
Abyei.
On
August 4,
after outgoing
chief UN
peacekeeper
Alain Le Roy
answered Inner
City
Press that the
Sudanese
government
"prevented us
to take off...
by threatening
to shoot at
the
helicopter." Video
here, from
Minute
46:56. Audio
here, from
Minute 46:53.
Le
Roy said that
while the UN
had yet to
sign a Status
of Forces
Agreement or
SOFA
with the
Khartoum
government for
the UNISFA
mission in
Abyei, the old
SOFA of the
expired UN
Mission in
Sudan was
still in
place.
But later on
August
4, UK
Permanent
Representative
to the UN Mark
Lyall Grant
told Inner
City Press
that "the UN
asked for
permission for
helicopter to
come from Wau
to pick up the
injured. The
Sudanese
government
said
they couldn't
come from Wau
because that
was a
different
country. So
they said can
we bring a
helicopter
from Kadugli.
It took about
three
hours or so to
get that
permission, by
the time they
picked them up
and took them
back, it was
too late."
On
August 5 Inner
City Press
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky to
confirm or
deny that the
UN has asked
to fly a
medevac
helicopter
from Wau and
had been
denied.
Nesirky
in
essence denied
it, saying
"the
helicopter was
to come from
Kadugli to
bring the
wounded
peacekeepers
to Kadugli."
The
difference is
important: if
the
possibility of
needing to
bring a
helicopter
from
Wau, since
July 9 in the
independence
nation of
South Sudan,
had not
been thought
out by the UN,
it would in
many views be
negligence.
The reported
actions of
Sudan are
outrageous --
but not
unforseeable.
So it is
responsible
for the UN to
put
peacekeepers
into Abyei
without having
an agreed plan
to get them
out for
medical
treatment if
needed?
Was
it a
helicopter
from Kadugli
to Abyei, both
in Sudan, that
Khartoum
"threatened to
shoot down,"
as Le Roy put
it? Nesirky
would
not repeat the
shooting
threat
statement,
rather saying
that that
"could not
take off
because there
was a long
delay" in
getting
permission.
In
Wau, Lyall
Grant in light
jacket, Rice
on the mic, SC
reaction to
copter block
not shown
But
if as Le Roy
told Inner
City Press on
August 4 the
old UNMIS
Status of
Forces
Agreement is
still in
place, why
would
permission
have been
needed to
fly within
Sudan for
medical
purposes?
Nesirky
himself went
on to say
"it is
standard
procedure that
medevacs do
not require
clearance."
Why
did the UN
wait for
clearance if
it was only
asking to fly
within Sudan,
and not
from South
Sudan? Is
there a SOFA
in place? What
ensures that
the
same thing
can't happen
today, or
tomorrow?
Watch this
site.
, 
in