As
ICC
Indictee Bashir Travels to ICC Member Chad, UN Ban No Comments,
No Arrest
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 21 -- With Sudan's Omar al Bashir intending to travel
to Chad, which is a member of the International Criminal Court, Inner
City Press on July 20 asked the spokesman for UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon if Mr. Ban thinks Chad should execute the ICC's arrest
warrant against Bashir for war crimes and genocide.
Earlier
this
summer in at the meeting in Kampala, Uganda of ICC state parties, Ban
was quoted as urging leaders to cooperate with the Court, and meet
their obligations. This would seem to imply, for ICC members like
Chad, either not allowing ICC indictees to enter the country, or
arresting them if they do. Even more recently, at a commemoration of
Srebrenica, Ban delivered a speech about accountability.
But
on July 20,
Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky replied that “it’s not for the
Secretary-General to give instructions to individual countries.”
Ah, leadership.
UN's Ban and Deby, ICC and accountability not shown
From the UN's July 20 transcript:
Inner
City
Press: the Secretary-General, when he went to Kampala, said that
African leaders, or leaders in general, particularly with countries
that are members of the Rome Statute, should cooperate with the ICC
[International Criminal Court]. Sudan has said that [President] Omer
Al-Bashir, it is his intention to travel to Chad this week. Chad is
a member of the ICC. Does the Secretary-General believe that Chad
should execute the arrest warrant on Omer Al-Bashir when he travels
to Chad?
Spokesperson:
As we’ve repeatedly said, the ICC is an independent judicial body;
it is not under the UN. It’s not part of the United Nations, so
the Secretary-General does not have to comment specifically on every
aspect of the ICC’s work. That’s the first thing. The second
thing is that he’s made clear that where there is a specific
request that’s come from the Security Council for individuals to be
taken into custody if they are facing charges, then that should be
carried out. But it’s up to individual countries that are
signatories to the [Rome Statute] of the ICC. It’s for them to
decide how they act. It’s not for the Secretary-General to give
instructions to individual countries.
And
on July 21,
Bashir was in Chad. Is Chad de-joining the ICC? Is Ban retracting his
Kampala and Srebrenica speeches? Watch this site.
* * *
As
Sudan
Lashes Out at UN “Bloodsuckers,” Nambiar and Choi Theories, UN No
Comments IOM Ouster,
Biden Blathers
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 18 -- With Darfur UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari
being
snubbed by the UK and US' Scott Gration, Vice President Joe Biden
on
July 18 said of the South Sudan referendum, "We are on it
full-time. And I believe that we'll be able to pull -- they'll be
able to pull (it) off, with our help and the UN's help, they'll be
able to pull off a credible election.”
The
UN's role in
making elections credible of late hardly merits this belief. In
Afghanistan, the UN stood by in the face of phantom polling places.
In
Kyrgyzstan, the
UN said nothing during a rushed referendum on a constitution which
would outlaw minority ethnic parties, held while ethnic Uzbeks were
chased in fear out of the country, or into IDP camps where few of
them could vote.
In
Burundi, just
after the visit of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, opposition parties
removed themselves from the ballot, leaving it a one party election
replete with tossed grenades.
But
it gets worse.
At a UN reception on July 17, talk turned to a trial balloon,
seemingly floated by the UN administration, that Ban's chief of staff
Vijay Nambiar might be outsourced to Sudan, to oversee the two UN
Missions there, UNMIS in South Sudan, and UNAMID in Darfur.
The
senior
Sudanese diplomat who raised this to Inner City Press said to quote
him, without name, as conveying that the government of Sudan would
never agree to this. “We are not short of useless of international
civil servants to suck the blood of our people... to prolong the
thing, the referendum, everything, to get money. We don't need a Paul
Bremer man. We would say no.”
(The second
part of the "Nambiar to Sudan" theory he floated involves the return to
New York of Ban's Cote d'Ivoire envoy Mr. Choi, essentially to run
Ban's campaign for a second term, while taking over Nambiar's Myanmar
and perhaps Sri Lanka roles. Nambiar, the Sudanese diplomat said, "has
diminishing returns.")
Sudan,
according
to this diplomat, surmises that the UK is as suspect of Gambari as
when he was in Myanmar, and that the US joins the UK in this. “They
like their man, Bassole,” he said.
UN's Ban and Biden, Gration's blow off of
Gambari and possible pro consul not shown
As
reported, when
asked by Inner City Press about Gration's
absence from the meeting of
Darfur envoys of China, Russia, the EU and others in El Fasher on
July 4, the US Mission said only Gration's office would answer, and
his spokesperson Marie Nelson refused to, despite three separate
calls requesting comment. The US Mission has again declined
comment,
but notes Gration's
more recent visit to Sudan.
Other
interested
countries' diplomats have told Inner City Press that the US does not
want to be a mere part of a UN process, contrary to Biden's UN
comments, but rather wants to have the central role.
And
if and when it
fails -- who will be responsible? Watch this site.
From
the
UN's
July 17 noon briefing transcript:
Inner
City
Press: In Sudan, there are these reports that the Government
made persona non grata, are throwing out, two representatives of the
International Organization for Migration. Does the UN have concerns
about the expulsion of these humanitarian workers?
Associate
Spokesperson
Farhan Haq: We don’t have any comment about the
treatment of this. We are aware of the reports, and we’ll check up
on what was behind this decision and what the facts are on that. But
we don’t have anything to say on that just yet.
And
still, more
than two days later, no comment from the UN.
* * *
, 
