In
Darfur, Aid Groups Barred from Kalma Camp, DPKO Says, No Comments
Abyei
Incursions, No US or UNSC Follow Through
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 4 -- In Darfur, while the UN is giving assurances
that the violence in the Kalma camp has passed, humanitarian groups
have been barred from the camp, housing eighty thousand internally
displaced people, for the past four days. This emerged only upon
detailed questioning of top UN peacekeeper Alain Le Roy. Video here,
from
Minute 47:36.
Inner
City Press
asked if there had not also been murders in the Zalingi camp -- Le
Roy said yes -- and about the restrictions on UN peacekeepers'
movements ordered by Sudanese authorities.
Le Roy said
that while the
Wali of South Darfur has issued such a declaration, requiring advance
notice of any UNAMID mission movements, including on the roads, the
UN is “discussing” this with Khartoum.
One wonders
why the UN has not said more about the barring of humanitarian groups
from the Kalma camp. Is it a sop to the government, or reflective of a
lull before new UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos takes over in
September?
Why has the
US, after Friday's consultations, not asked for any Council action in
the five days since? There were rumors early in the week of an Obama
administration re-think of, or at least meeting on, Sudan policy. But
it does not appear to have happened.
While
admitting
further deterioration and tensions in Darfur, the UN is still putting
South Sudan developments in a positive light, noting that the
National Congress Party as well as SPLM have asked the UN to monitor
the referendum.
Le Roy said
the UN does not usually monitor, but in
this case is moving toward naming three Eminent Persons, whom it will
support with 10 to 20 staff, to monitor.
Inner
City Press
asked who would choose the Eminent Persons -- might they included
former South African president and Al Bashir supporter Thabo Mbeki?
-- but Le Roy did not answer.
Regarding
Abyei, he described the Dinka
questioning the rights of nomads to come in and vote, but said it
would be up to a Commission which does not yet exist.
UN's Le Roy in Sudan, humanitarian access not shown
Le
Roy's logistics
colleague Susana Malcorra recently briefed the Press, and was asked
by Inner City Press what the UN would do to ensure that those
Southerners in the north who are registered to vote by the NCP can,
in fact, vote.
Sources
tell Inner
City Press that Khartoum plans to register many Southerners and then
make it difficult to vote, to drive turn out below 60% and invalidate
the referendum. Ms. Malcorra said that the UN would be watching
Southern registrants in the North. But Le Roy on Wednesday spoke only
of the South. Watch this site.
*
* *
Sudan
Not
on August Agenda of UN Council, Russia Against Larger
Investigations But Has "Clear Picture of Bizarre Incident"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 4 -- Despite increased violence in Darfur and the
stalling of talks in South Sudan about the referendum, the UN
Security Council in August does not have a single Sudan item on its
agenda.
Inner
City Press
on August 3 asked this month's Council president Vitaly Churkin of
Russia how had been responsible for the hostage taking of the Russian
pilot in Darfur. Video here,
from Minute 20:32.
Churkin
said
Russian now has a “clear picture of this rather bizarre episode.”
But he declined twice to say if government aligned Janjaweed had been
responsible. “The Sudanese authorities did what they could,” he
said. Informed sources say that Janjaweed did it in order to revive
or increase payments from the Sudanese government.
Following
up on
the July 30 Security Council meeting on the killings in the Kalma
camp, Inner City Press asked Churkin about what other Council members
revealed, that Russia along with China opposed France's request for
an “investigation.”
While
Churkin began, You
are not accurate in your assertion, he then said that there is a
danger of the UN turning into an investigative body, with “new
panels springing up.” The reference, it seemed, was to the UN's
advisory panel of experts on war crimes in Sri Lanka, which Russia
has opposed.
In Nyala, Gambari and copter, Russian pilot and
"bizarre episode" not shown
Like China,
though, and the U.S., Russia has a special envoy to Sudan, Mr.
Margelov, who was quoted blaming the pilot taking on the Janjaweed.
Calling
the
killings in the Kalma camp a “relatively minor incident,” Churkin
said Russia had accepted a UNAMID investigation, just not a “larger
investigation.” We'll see -- top UN peacekeeper Alain Le Roy is
slated to brief the Press later today.
* * *
On
Darfur
Camp
Violence, Nur's Role as Unclear as US Stance on Doha, Sudan Says
Camp Is Under UN Control, Lobbies
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July
30, updated -- Darfur camp violence was
taken up by the UN
Security Council on Friday afternoon. According to UN sources,
members of
the Liberation and Justice Movement group which is negotiating with
Khartoum were targeted by members of the Abdel Wahid Nur faction,
which is not.
While
the
United
States called for the consultations, it is not clear if the US stands
with the UN and its Darfur envoy Ibrahim Gambari in saying that the
solution to Darfur is to be found in Doha across the table from Omar
al Bashir's negotiators.
French
foreign
minister
Bernard Kouchner loudly announced that Paris based Abdel
Wahid Nur would be joining the Doha process. Nearly immediately,
Abdel Wahid Nur qualified this with the conditions previously listed,
including safety in Darfur.
Inner
City
Press
asked Ibrahim Gambari on July 27 about Abdel Wahid Nur's
participation. Gambari said no, and characterized the conditions,
including safety, as something you get at the END of negotiations,
not as a precondition. One can see this as either realism or a too
cavalier attitude to the protection of civilians, especially for one
in charge of a peacekeeping mission with such a mandate.
More Kalma from the past, Gambari not shown
Sudan's
acting
Ambassador,
on his way at 4 pm into the Council's suite where he
would not be allowed into consultations, said that Gambari had told
him at 2:30 that he would be placing some calls to get information,
and would himself be giving the briefing at 4. But at that time, he
was spotted by an Inner City Press source strolling the streets
outside the UN, dress in white national dress.
Gambari
also
said
on June 27 that he has gone to Paris twice to meet Abdel Wahid Nur.
Three days later, he is still in New York, but not in the
consultations room. Briefing was Alain Le Roy of Peacekeeping, joined
at 4:40 by Lynn Pascoe of Political Affairs.
The
South Sudan
referendum Eminent persons monitoring group the UN is moving to set
up, which Inner City Press exclusively reported earlier today, would
be staffed by Pascoe's Department of Political Affairs and not the UN
peacekeeping mission run by Haile Menkerios. Whether Pascoe's arrival
at the Council was about this, or the Doha process implications of
the attacks in the Darfur IDP camps is not yet known. Watch this
site.
Update
of
5:09
-- Sudan's charge d'affaires was lobbying in the hall outside
the Council. “We cannot live with a paragraph about inspecting the
Kalma camp... the camp is under the control of UNAMID...” Then,
after fumbling with their passes, they went into the Council's suite.
Coming out were the outgoing Nigerian presidency's plants and bean
bag chairs with Islamic script. Coming in -- Russia's set up, for
August..
Update
of
5:29
p.m. -- there will be a press statement. Unclear if it will
include the paragraph about inspecting or investigating in Kalma
camp, which Sudan is opposing.
Update
of
5:55
p.m. -- while UN TV had been told the press statement would
be ready and read by now, the Council has gone into recess. Inner
City Press is told by Council source that France has proposed the UN
send an investigation team to Kalma camp. China and Russia have
opposed it, as does Sudan. Developing.
Update
of
6:13
p.m. -- Here's what happened: France “aggressively” asked
for an investigation, setting of “red lights” among some other
delegations. But wait - the US asked the meeting, but France made the
proposal. Why? Le Roy pointed the finger at the Abdel Wahid Nur
group, but France says they've spoken to him and he denies it. THAT's
why France wants the investigation. You heard it here first....
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