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As
UN
Links South Sudan to 1st Move in Abyei, Bashir Says North Won't
Leave
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 24 -- With the UN belatedly linking “Southern Sudan
police or military forces” to the attack in Abyei on May 19, now
President Omar al Bashir of the National Congress Party says his
forces will not be leaving Abyei, despite the UN Security Council's
call for them to pull out.
The
Council
has
come and gone, perhaps for the last time, from Khartoum. From Juba
they ventured to Wau, from which they had once planned to continue on
to Abyei. But no more.
While
Paris,
perhaps due to France being president of the Security Council for
May, has
been strangely silent on violence in Abyei, now Canada and
Japan, neither of which are members of the Council, have joined the
US, UK and Norway in calling for Bashir to pull out.
In
New York on
Tuesday, Inner City Press asked the chief of the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos about the situation
not only in Darfur but also in Abyei. Of the latter, she said that
Georg Charpentier, who previously downplayed suffering in Darfur, was
today in Abyei.
Moments
later, UN
spokesman Martin Nesirky indicated he had more information about
Abyei:
Inner
City
Press: I guess you now have an answer on an UNMIS statement on
the cause of the violence on 19 May?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
...Well, I guess you read my mind, or the body language, I
don’t know which. This is what I can tell you at the moment, that
the available information and eyewitness accounts describing the
assailants, including their uniforms, strongly suggest that the
attackers were members of the Southern Sudan police or military
forces. And we’ve asked the Government of South Sudan to launch an
investigation immediately and hold the perpetrators accountable, as
attacks on UN peacekeepers constitute war crimes under international
law. And just a couple of other points, just to tell you that the
first airlift of 125 peacekeepers from the force reserve company from
Kadugli arrived in Abyei at 11:50 a.m. local time this morning, and
that that move of this reserve company will be completed tonight. And
in addition to the personnel, armoured personnel carriers are
being redirected from various locations to Abyei in order to support
future patrol activities. And I can also tell you that a ground
patrol was conducted in Abyei town this morning, and that then more
robust and aggressive patrolling was conducted this afternoon. And
also, there is a daily aerial patrol that has started as of today. The
Force Commander and the Deputy Force Commander, in other words
from the UN Mission in Sudan, are both in Abyei and they continue to
oversee operations. And the peacekeepers, as I say, are patrolling
in the Abyei area. This is to deter incidents of looting and to
identify, if possible, the groups responsible.
Susan Rice & Mark Lyall Grant, Georg Charpentier not shown
Inner
City
Press: the Sudanese Government is saying that there are 197 of
their soldiers who were either killed or disappeared in that attack.
Does the UN have any number, I mean, there’s other… there are…
others give a much smaller number, but does the UN have any sense of
— in that 19 May attack — what the casualties were?
Spokesperson:
I think that the numbers are much smaller than that, according to
the reporting that I have seen. But I’d have to come back to you. I
don’t know that we have a concrete actual toll. As I understand
it, once that attack took place, many of the people in the convoy
dispersed, and I don’t know that they have been accounted for. But
if we can get more details, certainly we would want to do that.
Clearly, the Sudanese Armed Forces themselves would want to account
for their own people, not least.
It
would seem
important to get to the bottom of this. Watch this site.
* * *
As
UN
Won't
Lay Blame for Abyei, France Says Little, No Notice on Libya
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May
23 -- Four days after an attack in
Abyei on a convoy led
by UN Mission in Sudan peacekeepers, the UN still won't say who was
responsible for the attack.
The
Press
Secretary for US President Obama on May 21, and the UN Security
Council on May 22, blamed this initial attack on “Southern forces.”
But
when Inner City
Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky
on May 23 who was responsible for the attack, Nesirky merely pointed
back to what he'd told Inner City Press last week: that an
investigation is necessary.
What
does
the US
and Security Council know that the UN doesn't?
Inner City
Press asked
Nesirky, and he pointed to a statement about subsequent burning and
looting in Abyei, which likewise doesn't say who is doing the
looting, only that the Sudan Armed Forces is responsible to stop it.
As
in Darfur,
which the Security Council chose not to try to even visit on this
trip, the UN appears loath to lay blame for attacks. Perhaps that's
one of the roots or causes of the problems in Abyei.
Meanwhile,
the
Security
Council too is having its communications problems. It put
out a press statement in Khartoum, which was transmitted to UN
correspondents in New York as a faint Adobe PDF file, barely legible.
The
Council has no
ongoing spokesperson: the country that is the president for the month
is in charge. While as noted US President Obama, and the foreign
ministers of the UK and even Norway have spoken out about Abyei,
little has been seen from officials of France, the Council president
for May.
President
Sarkozy
was
in Cote d'Ivoire, gloating about French Force Licorne involvement
in ousting Laurent Gbagbo, as France ships more attack helicopters to
Libya.
Inner City
Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Nesirky on Monday at noon if Ban
has gotten any notice, under Council Resolution 1973. No, Nesirky
said. Ah, communications.
Susan Rice, Sangqu of SA, Haile Menkerios- why is
this man smiling?
The
fog of
Security Council communications and travel led, it seems, to
misattribution of quotes by the US' Susan Rice to Russia's
Vitaly
Churkin,
who was quoted about Sudan lossing a chance to speak with
the Council - Rice's line - instead of Churkin's actual “get well”
to Sudan's Ali Karti.
They'll
be
on the
road to Thursday. But we'll still be reporting. Watch this site.
* * *
As
UN
Council
Cancels Abyei Trip, Georgian Echoes Amid AU Diagnosis of
Narcissism
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee, News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS,
May
22 -- What does it say about the UN Security Council
that outright war broke out in Abyei between North and Southern Sudan
just as the Council prepared to visit the contested area?
Before
the
Council
members left New York for Addis Ababa then Sudan, they negotiated the
“logistics” of visiting Abyei while attempting to downplay the
possibility of Ahmed Haroun, National Congress Party governor of
South Kordofan and International Criminal Court indictee, showing up
to greet and try to meet them on the way to Abyei.
UN
officials told
Inner City Press confidently “we can definitely protect the Council
in Abyei, it's only a question of landing first at the airport in
Kadugli or Wau.”
Things
change,
obviously. But why? An Council member left unnamed is quoted that the
North invaded Abyei in order to discourage the Council's visit. Beyond
what some see as the narcissism of the statement, even if
true, would this mean that the Council's visit inflamed rather than
de-escalated tensions?
When
President
Barack
Obama's Press Secretary said on May 21 that the initial May 19
attack in Abyei was the responsibility of “Southern Forces” but
drew a disproportionate response, it brought to mind the Georgian -
Russian conflict in which Georgia is said to have tried to retake
South Ossetia, then Russia rumbled down into Georgia itself.
In
hindsight, some
say Georgia erred in giving Russia the pretext to take land. So
might the “attack by Southern forces” of May 19 be viewed in
somewhat the same way?
Susan Rice at Khartoum airport May 21 - in
October, confronted Sudan about $15 fee
Or
is Southern
Sudan smarter than Georgia, triggering a response from Khartoum,
under the nose of the Security Council, that will meaningfully
rebound against Omar al Bashir, Haroun and the National Congress
Party? Watch this site.
Footnote:
In
the
Addis Ababa leg of the Council's trip, Ramtane Lamamra of the
African Union derided the Council for overriding the AU in
authorizing and not stopping the continued bombing of Libya by NATO.
While numerous Council members including two with veto power agree
that action has gone beyond Resolution 1973, others note that
Lamamra's from Algeria, more supportive of Gaddafi than most AU
members...
* * *
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.
Click
for Mar 1, '11
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
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
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
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
earlier
Inner
City
Press
are
listed
here,
and
some are available
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Copyright
2006-08
Inner
City
Press,
Inc.
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