As
UN
Security Council Takes Up Ethiopia-Eritrea at Portugal's Request, Empty
Thai
Cambodia Talk
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 17 -- Alongside Yemen in this afternoon's Security
Council consultations are two other conflicts: Ethiopia and Eritrea,
and Thailand - Cambodia.
Portugal
requested
that the Department of Political Affairs provide the first briefing,
based on reports of escalation received from its embassy in Addis
Ababa, sources say, and the United States backed Portugal's request.
Numerous
Council
members were dismissive of the UN briefing about Thailand and
Cambodia, given no little role the UN has in resolving that conflict.
(Some say that UNESCO granting of a unilateral application for
heritage status of border temples helped cause the conflict.)
On Monday
evening,
two Security Council members' political coordinators told Inner
City
Press that it was Russia, often described a blocking Council
meetings, which provided the initial support for Cambodia's request
for a formal meeting.
“This is
actually bullets across borders, what the Security Council was formed
for,” one of them said, contrasting it to recent Council action on
Libya, and talks without action on “internal” conflicts in Yemen
and Syria.
Another
joked that
if the Thai - Cambodia conflict were in Africa, the UN would be all
over it.
DPA's Pascoe and Araud, answers to questions not shown
Meanwhile,
as the
Council ended one of its Tuesday morning sessions, President Gerard
Araud as has become his practice refused to take questions. He even
read a press statement on Haiti -- only in French -- and refused to
take questions on it.
Portugal's
Ambassador
Cabral consented to speak on camera, about North Korea
sanctions. He dodged questions about what he called the “independent”
panel.
Inner
City Press asked him about reports that one of the
experts on the panel, at the behest of the government of his country,
was refusing to sign off on the report. “I've heard that,” Cabral
said, then maintained again that these sanctions panel members are
independent. There are allegations flying all in directions. Watch
this site.
* * *
As
UNSC
Eyes Sudan, Martin & Johnson Vie, Vladimir Safronkov Hands Cup
to UK's Quarrey
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 16 -- As the UN
Security Council prepares to travel to
Sudan, albeit not to Darfur, the question arose Monday of who will
replace Haile Menkerios atop the UN Mission in Sudan.
Sources
tell Inner
City Press that at least two current UN officials wants the post:
Hilde Johnson of UNICEF, and Ian Martin of the Department of
Political Affairs, only recently tapped for post-transition (or
post-Gaddafi) Libya.
The
question arose
at a reception at the Russian Mission to the UN, a farewell to
Vladimir K. Safronkov, Russia's political coordinator. It was a good
turn out, including among other DPA chief Lynn Pascoe, UK Permanent
Representative Mark Lyall Grant and US Deputy Permanent
Representative Rosemary DiCarlo.
The
ceremonial
highlight of the evening was the passing of the torch, or the “cup
of dean of P-5 political coordinators,” to David Quarrey of the UK. He
joked that he will only hold it for six week, then pass it on to
France. From there it will go to China.
At
the back,
political coordinators from non Permanent Security Council members
groused about not being in line for the cup, about Sudan, Libya and
Cote d'Ivoire.
One
asked Inner
City Press, what's up with Alain Le Roy? Well placed UN sources tell
Inner City Press he will be replaced, by another Frenchman, who's
already been selected. The question, then, is Pascoe, or maybe Angela
Kane.
Vladimir with hands crossed: he will be missed
Vladimir,
who is returning to Moscow to work on multilateral diplomacy and
international organizations, has been
well-liked in the UN. Inner City Press can speak highly of him as far
away as a tarmac in Goma in the Congo, calming other ambassadors down
after their plane was shot, from the inside.
As
of Monday
evening, the logistics of the Council's upcoming trip were still not
set. Le Roy's Department of Peacekeeping Operations is to briefing
them on Tuesday afternoon; for now they will land at Kadugli on their
way to Abyei. Ahmed Haroun, the ICC indictee who Menkerios has
insisted on flying, will not meet with them. And so it goes at the
UN. Watch this site.
* * *
UN
Admits
2d
Flight
of
ICC
Darfur
Indictee
Haroun
to
Abyei in Sudan, Impunity
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March
4,
updated -- The UN
has for a second time offered a free UN
flight in Sudan to Ahmed Haroun, under indictment by the
International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, the UN
admitted Friday in response to questions from Inner City Press.
On
March 3 the UN
Security Council met about renewed fighting in the disputed Abyei
region. Back in January, Inner City Press got the UN to acknowledge
they had flown ICC indictee Haroun from South Kordofan, where he
serves fellow ICC indictee Omar al Bashir as governor, to Abyei.
The
UN has defended
this controversial flight by saying that Haroun and Haroun alone
could stop violence in Abyei. The UN never explained why the
government of Sudan, which has an air force currently bombing civilians
in Jebel Marra in Darfur, couldn't itself fly Haroun.
The
UN said it was
a scheduled flight, then UN Mission in Sudan chief Haile Menkerios
admitted to
Inner City Press that it was a special flight. Inner City Press is
told such flights cost $40,000, and the UN has confirm no
reimbursement has been sought from the Bashir government.
But
now the
violence has continued, making the UN flight of ICC indictee Haroun
harder to justify even by the UN's own argument.
March
3
in
front
of
the
Security
Council,
Inner
City
Press asked Council president for
March Li Baodong of China if the UN Peacekeeping official who briefed
the Council, Atul Khare, had mentioned if Haroun would again be flown
in a UN helicopter. Li Baodong did not directly answer.
At
the March 4 UN
noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm or deny that that the UN would
once again fly ICC indictee Haroun to Abyei, even now that his work in
connection with the first flight has proved ineffective.
Nesirky
said
he
would
check.
Ten
minutes
later,
Nesirky's
deputy
Farhan Haq announced
by speaker to all UN correspondents that yes, Haroun attended today's
meeting in Abyei, and yes, “he was transported” by the UN.
This
UN
promotes
impunity,
even
for
one
of
the
few
people indicted for war crimes by
the ICC. Meanwhile Ban Ki-moon brags about the Security Council's partial
referral of the situation in Libya to the ICC -- a referral that Ban
Ki-moon did not even call for until after the Council voted to make
the referral.
This
UN
is
promoting
and
enshrining
lawlessness,
with
no
transparency
or
accountability. Watch this site.
Update
of 3:48 pm -- Human Rights Watch, via Richard Dicker, submitted
this
comment:
“This
is the second time in recent weeks the UN has transported Ahmed
Haroun who is charged by the ICC with war crimes in Darfur. We have
real concerns because the U.N. should not be in the business of
transporting Haroun. There needs to be an extremely high threshold of
urgency for such action by UNMIS.”
Responses
have
been
sought
from
the
Missions
to
the
UN
of France, the UK and the US,
with the latter two asked if they knew in advance of the UN's new
flight of ICC indictee Haroun. Given her
statements
this
year
about
social
media, & after hours of non-response by the US Mission
to the UN,@AmbassadorRice
has been asked directly as well. Watch
this site.
Update
of
4:30
pm
--
Then
this,
from
UK
Mission
to the UN spokesman Daniel
Shepherd:
“As
spokesperson, I would only reiterate the message that my two
Ambassadors have both said on the record (and published by Inner City
Press) first time around: that we aren’t going to second guess how
UNMIS fulfills its mandate to provide good offices to the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) parties in efforts to resolve
differences through dialogue and negotiations. I’d only add that
this work is particularly important at this sensitive time, to
contain any potential escalation after the recent Abyei violence.”
We could
note
again that violence has persisted despite the UN flying ICC indictee
Ahmed Haroun in the first time, and that it is the role of UN member
states to oversee the UN Secretariat, not to defer in this case to
what some see as its promotion of impunity - but at least the UK
would put its position on the record.
Update
of
4:43
pm
--
this
too
has
come
in,
perhaps in response:
Date:
Fri,
Mar
4,
201
Subject: Haroun and Abyei
To: Matthew.Lee [at]
innercitypress.com
You
guys
ask
great
questions!
Have
you
noticed
perhaps
that
the United
Nations seems to be unaware of who is causing the violence in Abyei.
And yet "diplomatic sources" report seeing the burial of 33
bodies - all southerners.
The
Arab
nomads
say
the
violence
started
when
SPLM
police
shot at them
(Hitler used a similar ploy to invade Poland) - and today thousands
of civilians fled Abyei fearing another crisis like in June 2008. The
Dinka Ngok villages north of Abyei, such as Maker, have been
burnt to the ground. The end explains the means. There is a
creeping ethnic cleansing going on in the Abyei region despite the
agreements of 2005 and the Court of Arbitration ruling in 2010.
Why
fly
Haroun
to
Abyei
-
what
is
his
cv?
It is, as you correctly point
out, that of arming arab militias to burn villages. I hope to see
more of your questions pinning the UN to the responsibility to
protect.
, 
