Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

At UN, As Sudan Considers AU Force of Ethiopians, US Draft Called Too Late for Tuesday, US Disagrees

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 31, updated -- When Khartoum said they don't want the UN Mission in Sudan to remain past July 8, that doesn't necessarily mean no more peacekeepers on the border. Inner City Press asked Sudan's Permanent Representative to the UN Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman about the idea of Ethiopia sending troops, not under the UN name, and he did not say no.

Afterward, the Southern Sudan delegation pointed at that answer as significant. A representative of a Permanent member of the Council told Inner City Press that Khartoum might accept the Ethiopians under the African Union banner, or IGAD.

Later, off camera, Sudan's Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Inner City Press the preference would be African Union, not hybrid, no UN at all.

An hour before the Sudan meeting of the UN Security Council, the US Mission to the UN distributed a draft Presidential Statement to the other Council members, asking for a vote on the same day.

The US, represented by Ambassador Susan Rice, explained that there was an extensive process to go through inside the US government before the draft could be circulated.

A number of other members pointed out that they too have internal government processes, and that therefore there was no way that a PRST could be voted on or even discussed on Tuesday.

Susan Rice at Khartoum airport May 21 - 2pm draft PRST not shown

A Western spokesman had come out to tell reporters that a Presidential Statement or PRST would be forthcoming, then that it was downgraded to a press statement, then that it wouldn't happen at all on Tuesday. Another representative told Inner City Press there would be consultations on a second US draft on Wednesday.

Update of 6:33 pm - When the consultations broke up at 6:30 with no outcome, Inner City Press asked Ambassador Rice to respond to the criticism that presenting a draft at 2 pm and asking for a vote that day was too late.

"A PRST is not done in one day... you've been around here long enough to know that," Ambassador Rice replied. But several non Permanent members said the US only showed the draft to them at 2 pm, and asked for a vote the same day. "Tell her that's right, it's not done in a day," one of them told Inner City Press. Even a US ally said it was not handled well. But tomorrow... is another day.

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After UN Inaction in Abyei, Ban Proposes 7000 Peacekeepers in South, But For What?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 25 -- At the most important time, as Northern forces rolled into Abyei, the UN peacekeepers in Abyei did very little, as was the case in 2008, witnesses tell Inner City Press.

What then is the future of the UN Mission in Sudan, which Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has recently recommended be continued after Southern Sudan independence on July 9, with seven thousand troops?

On May 25, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky just this:

Inner City Press: the Secretary-General’s report on the future of UNMIS (United Nations Mission in the Sudan) was, came out yesterday and proposes 7,000 troops in the south to provide protection. I just wonder, is that going to be updated in light of the events, I, presumably that have happened since this recommendation was made? And also, you didn’t mention it, but I wanted to know whether the UN is, you know, embracing this satellite imagery from the Satellite Sentinel project which seems to be showing Misseriya tribesmen heading south and… I mean, is that something… is this deployment meant to counter that? Is the idea that these Misseriya are actually going to head into South Sudan itself or simply populate and try to change the demographics of Abyei?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, we’re obviously aware of the satellite imagery reports that are out there, and I know that my colleagues in the Mission are looking into that. The deployment of additional peacekeepers to the area is to ensure that there is a clear presence to protect civilians. That’s the key role there of the peacekeepers. It is a presence which is being reinforced, as I have mentioned, and has been reinforced in the last couple of days.

With regard to the shape of any potential future mission, clearly that is for the Security Council to determine. And obviously, in the course of those discussions, new factors, including the most recent violence, could be taken into account. But that will be for the Council to determine. Obviously, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations is there with the expertise to help provide that kind of input if requested.

But DPKO itself is in some disarray. There's talk of changing leaders, both in New York and certainly in Juba. To replace Haile Menkerios, Inner City Press has already reported the candidacies of Ian Martin and Hilde Johnson. She is viewed as “too close to the SPLA” by some, leaving Ian Martin as the favorite. There is another candidate, from even closer to Ban - but more on that anon. Watch this site.

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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?

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...

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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

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

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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