As
Sudan
Shoots Students in Darfur, UN Says It's Better, Ignores Questions
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 20 -- The UN says it is not forgetting or trying to
cover up Sudanese government abuse in Darfur, but both appear to be
going on.
The UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan Georg
Charpentier in a press conference in Khartoum this week said that
despite the raised level of violent deaths in Darfur in 2010, the
figure is exaggerated because it includes tribe on tribe murders. (Of
course, the UN is reporting and highlighting just such numbers in
Cote d'Ivoire and attributing tribal killings to the government in
power there.)
On
January 18,
Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky what the UN and
the UN - African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) under
Ibrahim Gambari have to
say about the reported torture of Darfur activists including the
editor of the Al Sahafa newspaper.
Nesirky had
no information, bu the
next day sent an email that UNAMID is looking into it. Since then,
nothing.
Similarly,
Nesirky's
office has refused since last year to confirm or deny notes
from a presentation about Sudan by the UN Department of Political
Affairs that were leaked to Inner City Press. The question was
reiterated on January 19, without any response.
On
January 19,
cutting off his noon briefing at 12:15 for, ironically, a press
conference by the Special Adviser on Genocide (who used to work for
the Government of Sudan), Nesirky did not allow Inner City Press to
ask a question about government shooting in Darfur.
UN's Gambari & Charpentier, Darfur improvements not seen
Later on
January
19 Inner City Press submitted the Darfur question, and reiterated Sudan
question, to Nesirky and his Deputy Farhan Haq in writing.
At
the January 20
briefing, Nesirky did not mention the shootings, and had not sent any
answer about them to Inner City Press. So Inner City Press asked the
question again. Nesirky pulled out notes he
had not read from to
start the briefing, and said that students were shot and taken to
Khartoum.
“Who shot
them?” Inner City Press asked. Video here from Minute 8:02.
“That, I
can't tell,” Nesirky said. Indeed.
Later
on January
20, Inner City Press directly asked the head of UN Peacekeeping Alain
Le Roy about Charpentier's rosy assessment of Darfur. Le Roy said
there are over 40,000 new internally displaced people. Who is the UN
Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan? Watch this site.
* * *
As
UN
Admits
Transporting
ICC Indictee Harun to Abyei, NGOs & US Have Yet
to
Speak
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January
11
-- The UN Mission in Sudan transported and
assisted International Criminal Court indictee Ahmed Harun, UN
spokesman Martin Nesirky confirmed to Inner City Press on Tuesday,
because the UN finds Harun helpful in dealing with violence in Abyei.
Nesirky implied that the UN will continue to transport
Harun, saying that the UN "will continue to provide necessary support
to key players." Video
here,
from
Minute
13:48.
Inner
City
Press
asked
why the UN transported Harun, not only in light of his ICC
indictment for war crimes in Darfur, but also of the capacities
of
the Sudanese Air Force, which has recently conducted bombing raids
in
and near Southern Sudan.
If
the Sudanese
Air Force can bomb, Inner City Press asked, why can't it fly Harun to
Abyei? Nesirky did not answer this question. Nor would he tell Inner
City Press if UNMIS, led by Haile Menkerios, had checked with UN
Headquarters' Office of Legal Affairs or Ban Ki-moon before
transporting an indicted war criminal.
It
seems to some
that the Sudanese government of Omar al Bashir, who has also been
indicted by the ICC for genocide as well as war crimes, has no lack
of capacity to transport its official Harun, but instead wanted to
get the UN further involved in undercutting the war crimes
indictments.
Already,
Haile
Menkerios
and
his counterpart at the Mission in Darfur UNAMID Ibrahim
Gambari attended the inauguration of Omar al Bashir. Inner City Press
asked Nesirky, without answer, if the UN would provide transport and
assistance to other ICC indictees, including Joseph Kony of the the
Lord's Resistance Army, widely thought to be in South Darfur.
UN Security Council in Sudan w/ Gambari, 10/10 (c)MRLee
Earlier
on
January
11,
Inner City Press asked representatives of
non-governmental organizations active on Sudan about the UN's
transport of ICC indictee Harun. David Abramowitz, the Director of
Policy and Government Relations of the group Humanity United, said
that he wasn't aware of the reports of Harun being transported, "I have
not seen that report."
Nor
has the US
administration, including its Mission at the UN, yet spoken on the
matter. Some wonder whether they were consulted, even whether, in
light of the offer to delink Darfur from the offer to remove some
sanctions on Sudan in exchange for the South Sudan referendum, if the
US agreed.
Sam
Bell, the
Executive Director of the Genocide Intervention Network / Save Darfur
Coalition, said he hadn't
seen the report confirmed, but either way
it did not send a good message to the people of Darfur, where Harun
was indicted for war crimes: "already Darfuri are suspicious of UNAMID
and UN personnel."
In
fact, Harun was
indicted for working with and organizing the type of nomadic tribes
which are accused of the killings in Abyei, and now in South Kordofan
state as well.
Nesirky
told Inner City Press that "Governor Harun was critical" to bringing
the Miseriya tribes together. Video
here,
from
Minute
15:58.
So
in this view,
it is not only a matter of the fox guarding the hen house: the UN has
taken to transporting the fox to the hen house. Where will there be
accountability? Watch this site.
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