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UN's Ban Distances Himself from Sudan's Bashir,
After Off the Record Lunch with Journalists
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
August 1 -- With Sudan's President
Omar Al Bashir threatened with an arrest warrant by the International
Criminal
Court, it has been reported that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has
been
advised by his lawyers to "distance himself politically" from Al
Bashir. The London-based newspaper Al Hayat, with a long-time
correspondent at
UN Headquarters, sourced this to "Ban aides."
At the
August 1 UN noon
briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Michele Montas if
the
report is true.
"I don't have a response," Ms. Montas said. But was Ban advised to
distance himself from Al Bashir? "I'm sure that issue was discussed
with
the Secretary-General," Montas said, adding that is Ban's decision what
to
do with such advice. Video here,
from Minute 23:16.
Further
inquiry by Inner City Press leads to the inference that the sourcing of
the story
was Ban Ki-moon himself. It is an open secret that Ban has been holding
a
series of off-the-record lunches with select reporters, including on
July 30 the
Al Hayat correspondent. Whether a shifting of the sourcing from Ban to
his
aides -- or perhaps in fairness a subsequent confirmation by aides --
complies
with Ban's understanding remains to be seen.
The
question arises, as the trigger for this piece, why would Ban be
distancing
himself from the advice or decision that he be distant from Bashir?
What is gained
by telling select journalists, on the condition that they not report
it, that
he is taking seriously the ICC Prosecutor's charges of war crimes
including
rape, and of genocide, by Al Bashir? Perhaps it was understood that
they would
report it?
Messrs. Ban and Bashir, distance for distancing not shown
Some say
that the decision to step back from Al Bashir is as much personal as
legal.
Just before ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo formally announced that
he is
seeking an arrest warrant against Al Bashir, Ban telephoned Bashir.
Afterwards,
Sudanese state media characterized the call as one in which Ban was
critical of
the prosecutor. Ban's office ultimately responded to the
characterization, and
criticized statements by Sudan's Ambassador to the UN. When Inner City
Press
asked, on the record, which statement were being criticized, there was
no
answer. But was there an off the record answer?
The series
of lunches continued on August 1, when Ms. Montas was seen escorting a
half
dozen journalists to the elevator. Would the lunches become on the
record?
Would they cease? Watch this site.
And
this --
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