Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

Amid Sudan Slaughter, Clinton's Trip Ignores the UN's Role in Abyei & Darfur

By Matthew Russell Lee, News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, June 12 -- As the talks between Khartoum's Omar al Bashir and Juba's Salva Kiir for which the UN Security Council canceled its June 10 meeting on Abyei begin in Addis Ababa, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is slated to arrive and meet with Kiir but not Bashir.

This is supposed to symbolize the US's concern about what happened in Abyei and now Southern Kordofan and Jau in Unity State. But the US' silence on key issue can be read another way.

Clinton was in Zambia, whose soldiers stayed inside the UN's base in Abyei as houses were burned and ethnic cleansing occurred. Clinton made far to little -- if anything -- of this inaction during her visit to Zambia.

Nor has the US spoken out against the UN Mission in Sudan having at least twice flow Ahmed Harun, indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, to Kandugli for Abyei talks.

Now with slaughter taking place in Southern Kordofan, where Harun is the National Congress Party's government, still the US says nothing.

The talk in Addis is of the two Sudanese sides asking for new peacekeepers, directly from Ethiopia. This implicit critique of how the UN is being run is also unremarked on by the US, which last week quickly delivered an endorsement for a second five year term as Secretary General for Ban Ki-moon.

Ban had said that Darfur was one of his two top priorities for his first five years, but things are scarcely better there. But the US has stopped speaking much of Darfur, even as most recently 13 Zaghawa were executed by Khartoum.

Hillary Clinton holds forth previously at UN, not on Darfur or Harun

The UN also then doesn't speak. From the UN's June 10 noon briefing transcript:

Inner City Press: there is a report that in Darfur the Government killed [thirteen] members of the Zaghawa tribe, returned three of them to Shangil Tobaya; it’s pretty well documented, this African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies has the names of all 16 victims. I wonder, one, if UNAMID [African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur] is aware of it, and two, if so, one way or another why, what’s UNAMID’s reaction to this? It’s 10 days ago that it happened.

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Let me check. We will ask UNAMID whether they have anything on that.

Forty eight hours later, there is nothing from the UN. Watch this site.

Footnote: Hillary Clinton has, however, been denying reports that she wants to replace Robert Zoellick as head of the World Bank. Such a desire might partial explain the softness on these issues, the UN and all things multilateral. (Some think Susan Rice would then move from Turtle Bay to Foggy Bottom.) But is the world going so well as to keep the World Bank for the US, the IMF for France and the UN for Ban Ki-moon? Watch this site.

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Amid Sudan Fighting, UN SC Cancels June 10 Meeting, Waiting on Bashir

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 10 -- Amid the attacks and killings in Abyei and now Southern Kordofan, the US Mission to the UN last week pushed for a Security Council Presidential Statement calling for Khartoum's forces to withdraw.

The US had wanted the PRST to explicit set a follow up Council meeting on Friday June 10, but this, like references to Khartoum's “occupation” of and “ethnic cleansing” in Abyei was omitted. Instead it called for a monitoring meeting in the coming days. Even Khartoum's defenders, though, said that this meant June 10.

But now the June 10 follow up is canceled. Sources tell Inner City Press that based on a letter from Sudan, and an impending meeting between Thabo Mbeki, Salva Kiir and Omar al Bashir, under International Criminal Court indictment, the Council has canceled Friday's meeting.

This will be bad news for demonstrators who circulated a call for a protest at the UN on Friday morning, trying to get the killings in Southern Kordofan added to the Sudan issues set to be discussed on Friday. Now, Sudan will not be discussed by the Council on Friday. What will happen over the weekend? Watch this site.

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At UN on Abyei Draft, Sudan PR Denies Food Theft, Dismisses Burning of “Huts," UNSC to Set June 10 Meeting

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 3, updated -- Seventy hours after the US introduced a draft Presidential Statement on Abyei, Sudan's Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman walked into the Security Council in a bright white suit. Already a Council Deputy Permanent Representative had told Inner City Press that more work was needed on the Statement, to begin at 1 pm on Friday.

As Sudan's Ambassador walked out of the Council, Inner City Press asked him about the draft. He said it had been inaccurate to call Sudan's tanks in Abyei an occupation. (Inner City Press is told that this word is being removed). He took issue with the phrase that the influx of Miseriya was an attempt at ethnic cleansing.

“That is prejudging,” he said. “Let it happen, genocide or ethnic cleansing, and then talk about it.”

Sudan PR & Ban Ki-moon, follow through on food theft not shown

When Inner City Press asked him about the accusation that tons of food was stolen in Abyei, he said he hadn't seen the World Food Program see that. Asked by another journalist about the burning of houses, he said, “those are huts, these things happen in war. Where are you from - Lebanon? These things happen there.”

And then he was gone, at least until 1 pm.

Update of 11:40 am -- a Deputy Permanent Representative tells Inner City Press that the meeting on the Sudan PRST has been moved up from 1 until just after the consultations on UNOCA, as early as noon. What else will come out of the draft? Watch this site.

Update of 12:30 pm -- Inner City Press is told that if the Council finally reaches agreement on this PRST, it will be adopted by being read out in the Chamber at 4 pm...

Update of 1:19 pm -- after a Deputy Permanent Representative tells Inner City Press that the Sudan PRST is “definitely” going to be adopted at 4 pm, another source explains to Inner City Press that there is only one paragraph open, in which the US wants to require new meetings on the topic every seven days, other members don't. Eminently solvable.

Update of 2:26 pm -- while another Deputy Permanent Representative tells Inner City Press that the Council has agreed to hold another meeting on Sudan next week, says they have still not agreed on how to express it in language and “put it on paper.” A Western representative asks Inner City Press, if we put it out at 4, the news can still be distributed, right? But of course...

Update of 2:51 pm -- the Political Coordinators have just left the Council, a number of them telling Inner City Press that the agreement, to be typed up by the US and translated into French in which Gabon will read it out, is to remain seized of the matter and to calendar another meeting on Sudan for June 10... Timing of adoption now depends on US typing up, and translation...

Update of 4:32 pm -- while the players have arrived for adoption of the Sudan PRST at the Security Council, still the meeting hasn't started. Meanwhile, reports of a UN leak saying it WAS ethnic cleansing in Abyei, here

Update of 4:39 pm -- a Deputy Permanent Representative tells Inner City Press, “the French translation is not ready.”

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UN Admits 2d Flight of ICC Darfur Indictee Haroun to Abyei in Sudan, Impunity

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 4, updated -- The UN has for a second time offered a free UN flight in Sudan to Ahmed Haroun, under indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, the UN admitted Friday in response to questions from Inner City Press.

On March 3 the UN Security Council met about renewed fighting in the disputed Abyei region. Back in January, Inner City Press got the UN to acknowledge they had flown ICC indictee Haroun from South Kordofan, where he serves fellow ICC indictee Omar al Bashir as governor, to Abyei.

The UN has defended this controversial flight by saying that Haroun and Haroun alone could stop violence in Abyei. The UN never explained why the government of Sudan, which has an air force currently bombing civilians in Jebel Marra in Darfur, couldn't itself fly Haroun.

The UN said it was a scheduled flight, then UN Mission in Sudan chief Haile Menkerios admitted to Inner City Press that it was a special flight. Inner City Press is told such flights cost $40,000, and the UN has confirm no reimbursement has been sought from the Bashir government.

But now the violence has continued, making the UN flight of ICC indictee Haroun harder to justify even by the UN's own argument.

March 3 in front of the Security Council, Inner City Press asked Council president for March Li Baodong of China if the UN Peacekeeping official who briefed the Council, Atul Khare, had mentioned if Haroun would again be flown in a UN helicopter. Li Baodong did not directly answer.

At the March 4 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm or deny that that the UN would once again fly ICC indictee Haroun to Abyei, even now that his work in connection with the first flight has proved ineffective.

Nesirky said he would check. Ten minutes later, Nesirky's deputy Farhan Haq announced by speaker to all UN correspondents that yes, Haroun attended today's meeting in Abyei, and yes, “he was transported” by the UN.

This UN promotes impunity, even for one of the few people indicted for war crimes by the ICC. Meanwhile Ban Ki-moon brags about the Security Council's partial referral of the situation in Libya to the ICC -- a referral that Ban Ki-moon did not even call for until after the Council voted to make the referral.

This UN is promoting and enshrining lawlessness, with no transparency or accountability. Watch this site.

Update of 3:48 pm -- Human Rights Watch, via Richard Dicker, submitted this comment:

“This is the second time in recent weeks the UN has transported Ahmed Haroun who is charged by the ICC with war crimes in Darfur. We have real concerns because the U.N. should not be in the business of transporting Haroun. There needs to be an extremely high threshold of urgency for such action by UNMIS.”

Responses have been sought from the Missions to the UN of France, the UK and the US, with the latter two asked if they knew in advance of the UN's new flight of ICC indictee Haroun. Given her statements this year about social media, & after hours of non-response by the US Mission to the UN,@AmbassadorRice has been asked directly as well. Watch this site.

Update of 4:30 pm -- Then this, from UK Mission to the UN spokesman Daniel Shepherd:

“As spokesperson, I would only reiterate the message that my two Ambassadors have both said on the record (and published by Inner City Press) first time around: that we aren’t going to second guess how UNMIS fulfills its mandate to provide good offices to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) parties in efforts to resolve differences through dialogue and negotiations. I’d only add that this work is particularly important at this sensitive time, to contain any potential escalation after the recent Abyei violence.”

We could note again that violence has persisted despite the UN flying ICC indictee Ahmed Haroun in the first time, and that it is the role of UN member states to oversee the UN Secretariat, not to defer in this case to what some see as its promotion of impunity - but at least the UK would put its position on the record.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video Analysis here

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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