As
UN
Admits Abyei
Medevac Delay
Was For Copter
from Wau in
South Sudan,
What
Safeguards Are
In Place?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August
5,updated --
As the delay
associated
with the death
of three
peacekeepers
in Abyei
garners more
interest, the
UN on Friday
afternoon
reversed its position of
hours earlier,
and admitted
that
it asked Sudan
if it could
medevac the
injured
peacekeepers
using a
helicopter
from Wau in
South Sudan,
and that Sudan
said no, "that
is a different
country."
This
is what UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant told
Inner City
Press on
Thursday
evening, but
which
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
denied Friday
at noon,
saying that
the request
had
been to fly
the helicopter
from Kadugli
in Sudan.
If
Khartoum
blocked a
medical flight
entirely
within Sudan
it would be
one thing;
for them to
deny access to
a helicopter
from a country
which just
broken away,
while
heartless, is
not
unexpected.
So
the question
is, why did
the UN not
plan for it,
not admit it
when it
happened,
and try to
dissemble
about it even
after the cat
was out of the
bag,
due to the UK
Ambassador's
commendable
candor?
And
what ensures
that if a UN
peacekeeper is
injured today
in Abyei, they
too might
not bleed out
due to a lack
of planning?
Watch this
site.
In Wau, Lyall
Grant in light
jacket, Rice
on the mic, SC
reaction to
copter block
not shown
Note:
The
Council
meetings on
August 11
about Sudan --
but outgoing
DPKO
chief Alain Le
Roy's last day
is August 10.
So once again
at the UN:
no
accountability?
Footnote:
Earlier
this year when
the Security
Council
traveled to
Sudan, they
intended to go
to Abyei. But
even before
fighting
flared up,
there
was
controversy
about whether
they would fly
in via Wau in
the South,
which has a
shorter
runway, or
Kadugli, where
ICC-indicted
Southern
Kordofan
government
Ahmed Haroun
might greet
them on the
tarmac.
Ultimately
they didn't
go: but they
were on notice
of the
problems of
air travel to
and from
Abyei. We will
continue on
this.
Update
of
August 5,
2011, 4pm --
this has come
in from the
lead spokesman
of the US
Mission to the
UN, for the US
State
Department:
Matthew:
You
asked
yesterday
about the US
position on
the Sudanese
response to
the tragic
incident in
Abyei. Below
is a statement
from Secretary
Clinton which
was just
released.
For
Immediate
Release August
5,
2011 2011/1280
STATEMENT
BY
SECRETARY
CLINTON
The
Deaths
of Four UN
Peacekeepers
in Abyei
The
United
States is
deeply
concerned by
the deaths of
four United
Nations
peacekeepers
whose vehicles
struck and
detonated a
land mine
in the Abyei
region this
week, and by
the Government
of Sudan’s
response to
this incident.
We offer our
deepest
condolences to
the
families of
the fallen, to
the people of
Ethiopia and
to the United
Nations.
We
are
alarmed by
reports that
the Government
of Sudan
delayed
granting
the necessary
flight
clearances to
allow the
expeditious
medical
evacuation of
the injured
peacekeepers
and threatened
to shoot down
any UN
helicopter
that attempted
to access the
area without
approval.
Three wounded
soldiers died
during this
unnecessary
delay. The
United States
is committed
to ensuring
that the
United Nations
Interim
Security Force
for Abyei
(UNISFA) has
the political
support
to carry out
its important
and difficult
mandate under
challenging
circumstances
and strongly
condemns the
Government of
Sudan’s
non-compliance
with its
obligation and
its
obstruction of
the work of
the United
Nations.
This
tragic
incident also
underscores
the importance
of
establishing
peace
and security
in Abyei, and
between Sudan
and South
Sudan. We urge
the
Governments of
Sudan and
South Sudan to
fulfill their
agreement
to withdraw
their forces
immediately
from the Abyei
area, and to
allow full and
unrestricted
access to
UNISFA
personnel.
The
statement does
not mention
that the UN
helicopter was
asked to come
from Wau in
South Sudan,
nor that UN
peacekeepers
were sent into
Abyei without
a
Status of
Forces
Agreement (or
human rights
monitors).
Meanwhile at
the UN on
Friday
featuring the
Bishop of
Kadugli, the
doubt that
State
Department
official and
envoy
Princeton
Lyman has cast
on
satellite
images
depicting mass
graves in
Southern
Korofan was
criticized.
But the above
has come in.
We will
continue to
report.
* * *
UN
Claims Medevac
to Abyei Was
from Kadugli,
Not S. Sudan
as UK Said
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 5,
updated with
UN reversal
here --
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.
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