Darfur
Camp
Violence “Started by People Close to Abdel Wahid Nur,” Le Roy
Confirms Gambari Turn Over Conditions
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 6 -- On Darfur, a week after the UN Security Council
charged top Peacekeeper Alain Le Roy will getting a “full
understanding of the facts” behind the violence in the Kalma camp,
Inner City Press asked Le Roy what he now understands.
“It is clear it
was started by anti-Doha forces... clearly people close to Abdel
Wahid Nur,” Le Roy to his credit answered, referring to the Doha
process in which the government of indicted war criminal Omar Al
Bashir is negotiating with Darfur groups including a friendly one
started by a former UN staff member, Al Tijani Al Sissi's Liberation
and Justice Movement.
Le
Roy then
quickly pointed out that Abdel Wahid Al Nur denies authoring a flier
related to the violence, and issued a statement calling for calm, at
the request of joint mediator Bassole -- who recruited Al Tijani Al
Sissi from his post at the UN Economic Commission on Africa -- and of
France, “since Abdel Wahid lives in Paris.”
In
the face of
Sudanese demands that the UN turn over six individuals accused of
being behind the violence, Abdel Wahid said any turn-over would lead
to violence.
While UN
spokesman Martin Nesirky refused earlier on
Friday to confirm the UN repeated this and conditions for turn over
to the Sudanese, Le Roy went ahead and confirmed it.
“Gambari told
them, it is not in your interest, we have our mandate of protection
of civilians,” Le Roy said. Inner City Press asked, what if the six
are in fact behind the violence, does the UN have a duty to cooperate
with Sudanese law enforcement?
“There is also
stabilization,” Le Roy answered. “If we turned them over without
special conditions, there might be other violence.”
This
same logic
of impunity, though, could be used to argue for the dropping of the
war crimes and genocide indictments against Bashir. Watch this site.
UN's Le Roy in IDP camp, OCHA and humanitarian
access not shown
Footnote:
Le
Roy, who also emphasized concern about displacementin the DR Congo,
spoke to the Press after a four hour long Security Council
session headlined by the force commanders of UN Peacekeeping
missions, minus Lebanon's UNIFIL and Darfur's UNAMID. In what news
remained, the force commander of MINURCAT departing Chad said that
while some in the Council accused MINURCAT of accomplishing nothing,
this wasn't true.
Afterward,
Inner
City Press asked UN military advisor Obiakor to confirm he is
leaving, to be replaced by Senegalese Babacar Gaye from MONUSCO.
While Obiakor confirmed it, adding that he will stay in New York for
a “project” with DPKO, Gaye refused to confirm it, on his way
into the UN cafeteria.
There,
with a half
dozen other general, Aramark was removing food, almost leaving the UN
generals unfed. Aramark is closing the Delegates Dining Room from
August 9 to September 20, and was going to start closing the
cafeteria at 4 pm. For now, it remains open until 7:30. We'll see.
* * *
As
Sudan
Starves Kalma camp and Jebel Marra, UN Has Stayed Quiet, OCHA
is AWOL
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 6 -- In Darfur, why has the UN remained so quiet not
only about Sudan
blocking humanitarian aid into the Kalma camp since
August 2, but into eastern Jebel Marra since February 2010?
In
an August 4
response to a question from Inner City Press about
restrictions and
the Kalma camp, chief UN peacekeeper Alain Le Roy said that the
government had blocked humanitarian groups for the four previous
days.
On
August 5,
Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm this
blocking of aid. Nesirky said he would check. Since the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is supposed to have and
provide information on just these topics, Inner City Press e-mailed
two OCHA spokespeople, thinking that confirmation should be on hand.
But hours later, OCHA replied that it was checking with people.
Still
having no
answer on the morning of August 6, Inner City Press asked OCHA again,
and some addition questions about the discontinuation of UN reporting
on humanitarian issues in Darfur, including malnutrition. (OCHA
referred this question to UNICEF, to which Inner City Press has now
forwarded the questions).
At
the UN noon
briefing of Friday, August 6, Inner City Press asked again about
Kalma camp, and Nesirky said "I will again check with OCHA."
Where
is OCHA chief John Holmes? Inner City Press asked, isn't this
precisely the type of situation OCHA is supposed to advocate, and
loudly, about?
After
the noon
briefing, Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq provided this answer, that
OCHA confirms lack of access to Kalma camp since August 2, and to
eastern Jebel Marra “since February 2010.” He said the OCHA is
advocating “locally.”
First,
this
“local” advocacy, if it exists, has not worked: witness the
continuing lack of access to east Jebel Marra for more than FIVE
MONTHS.
Second,
it is
unclear why this OCHA would grow so quiet on this issue. Inner City
Press asked, are there other situations OCHA is staying quiet about?
Nesirky did not answer, and the OCHA spokespeople have yet to answer
the questions Inner City Press put to them on August 5.
UN's Ban and Holmes (and Pascoe), speaking
out on Sudan's aid blockade not shown
Nor
would Nesirky
confirm to Reuters the Sudan
Tribune's report on the UN's “talking points”
to Khartoum, nor to Inner City Press whether Khartoum has formally
asked Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon to turn over six people in Kalma camp it claims
are responsible for the violence.
Has
the UN come to
any of the “full understanding of the facts” behind the violence
in Kalma camp which the Security Council asked for a full week ago? You
could have asked Le Roy on August 4, answered Nesirky, who on
that day limited Inner City Press' questions.
The
question
remains: where is OCHA? Where is John Holmes? Where, for that matter,
is Ban Ki-moon. Physically, he is in Japan. But where is he on the
issue, of Sudan's intentional starvation of people in Kalma camp and
eastern Jebel Marra?
And
if this is
addressed with a “statement attributable to the spokesperson for
the Secretary General,” would Ban Ki-moon walk away from the
statement, after a governmental complaint, as he did on the UN's
statement about Kashmir? Watch this site.
* * *
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