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In Darfur, UN Considers Hiring
Workers of Expelled NGOs, But Will More Be Thrown Out?
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, March 9 -- As staff
members of international humanitarian groups expelled from Darfur
arrive in
Kenya, the UN's relief coordinator John Holmes told the Press that
Sudan's
allegations against the groups were "far-fetched and implausible."
Inner
City Press asked about Friday statements by Sudan's Ambasadador the UN
that several groups used their planes to fly witnesses against
President
al-Bashir to Europe, in the run-up to the indictment of Bashir for war
crimes.
"I don't know of NGOs with their own planes," Holmes answered. Video
here
from Minute 40:56.
Inner City Press asked if the UN could hire the 7000
local workers who
the international NGOs are leaving behind in Darfur. Holmes said, if
the UN can
build capacity, and "if we want to do it," depending on the operating
environment for humanitarian work in Sudan going forward. Video here,
from
Minute 44:04.
To some, this sounded like counter-negotiation by
the UN. The idea is,
following Bashir's indictment, he ordered the NGOs out in order to use
humanitarian crisis as a bargaining chip to encourage the US, France
and UK to
agree to suspend the legal proceedings against him. At present, this
seems
unlikely. Now the UN counters, in this view, that it will not step in
to pay
the 7000 laid-off Darfuris until it gets some commitments from Bashir's
government.
In Darfur, people used as pawns
This counter-negotiation by the UN gives rise to a
question about
Holmes' contradictory statements that there were contingency plans in
place for
the expulsion of NGOs, and that the expulsion was "unexpected." When
Inner City Press asked about this contradiction, Holmes said that
"private
threats were made" but "we had not expected" the expulsion of
the NGOs. Video here,
from Minute 32:58.
But former UN envoy to Sudan
Jan Pronk has called the expulsion entirely foreseeable.
Just because you
planned for something
doesn't imply it's acceptable, one wag pointed out. To not have
planned, given
the run-up to the indictment, would speak worse of the UN.
But what now, if Bashir expels more NGOs, or the UN
mission to Darfur,
UNAMID? Watch this site.
Footnote:
Strangely, when asked
if the UN is dealing with a Sudanese humanitarian minister named Harun,
the
name of one of the two first Sudan indictees, Holmes said there are two
humanitarian ministers named Harun, and the UN is dealing with the one
who is not
a war criminal. He added that the UN would deal with a war criminal in
certain
circumstances. What's in a name?
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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
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