Amid
Sudan
Blockade & Shelling of Kalma Camp, UN Vacation from Advocacy
Recalls
Bloodbath on the Beach in Sri Lanka
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 8 -- In Darfur, how seriously is the UN taking the
government's blockade of humanitarian aid to, and now reported
shelling of tens of
thousands of internally displaced people in
the Kalma Camp?
The
blockade
began, at latest, on August 2. But the UN only disclosed it, as an
afterthought, when head Peacekeeper Alain Le Roy on August 4 answered
Inner City Press' questions about violence in the camp by mentioning
no access by humanitarian groups “for four days.”
The
next day, the
spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Martin Nesirky, told
Inner City Press he didn't know about the blockade, that the UN
Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs would know.
So
Inner City
Press asked OCHA. That day, the only response was “checking with
people.” And nothing the next day, except to refer a question about
malnutrition in Darfur to UNICEF, which has yet to answer it, two
days later.
Amid
reports on
August 7 of militia members in Sudanese government vehicles firing
shells at those in the Kalma Camp, Inner City Press sent questions
to
the spokespeople for the UNAMID mission and for Joint Special
Representative Ibrahim Gambari.
This
spokesperson
accompanied Gambari at his last press stakeout in New York, when
Gambari walked away from the microphone after Inner City Press asked
about the indictment of Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir for
genocide.
IDP children in Darfur, UN, aid and advocacy not shown
But while
there was no answer about genocide, business cards were exchanged, with
a promise of prompt
answers and even an invite to Al Fasher by Gambari.
But
more than 12
hours after simple questions were sent -- confirm the shelling, does
the blockade extend to Zalingei camp -- none of these UN spokespeople
have made any response at all.
Rather,
the UN's
Radio
Miraya has broadcast Sudanese authorities' denials of any
restrictions on humanitarian groups, and claims that the groups
haven't even asked to enter the camp(s).
This
UN system
response to the blockade and shelling of tens of thousands of already
internally displaced people is beginning to be reminiscent of the
UN's silence about and thus, some say, complicity in the “bloodbath
on the beach” in Sri Lanka in May 2009. Watch this site.
* * *
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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