UN
Council
Will
Not Travel to Darfur, Meeting Gambari Outside Sudan,
Doha Process "Collapsing"
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May
3 -- When the UN Security Council travels to Africa and Sudan
later this month, it will not be going to Darfur. Inner City
Press on Tuesday asked the Council President for May, Gerard Araud of
France, if this reflects that France or the Council believes that the
continued killing in Darfur is less important that before.
Araud
answered
largely
in terms of Sudan's North - South process, and the apparent
need to convince Khartoum to allow the UN to keep a peacekeeping
presence in the North. He said that “Abyei, Southern Kordofan and
Blue Nile” are still hot spots.
Finally,
Araud
acknowledged
that “the Doha process is more or less collapsing." But why
then is there no successor for Djibril Bassole, who stepped down as
Doha mediator on April 30 to return to Burkina Faso as foreign
minister?
Araud
said,
“Darfur,
we are not going to avoid the problem. We will be in
Khartoum, and raise to the authorities. We will meet [Darfur
peacekeeping chief Ibrahim] Gambari, by chance, in Nairobi.”
But
many feel that
Gambari as head of UNAMID is not investigating or reporting on, much
less stopping, the government's military and anti-humanitarian moves
in Darfur.
Araud and Cote d'Ivoire PR Bamba, focus on Darfur not shown
In just the
past few days, Inner City Press has asked the
UN about these claims, without answer. On April 28, Inner City Press
asked:
Inner
City
Press:
the Justice and Equality Movement has alleged that the
Government has began using land mines in North Darfur. And they say
that they have asked UNAMID [African Union-United Nations Hybrid
Operation in Darfur] to go and remove them or to verify them there.
It’s been out for about 36 hours, this story, and I wonder: has
UNAMID reacted to that? Is it true? Is it not true? What’s
UNAMID doing about this?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Farhan Haq: Well, we don’t have any immediate
reaction from UNAMID to this. Of course, demining is one of the
tasks that UN missions tend to take once we have the ability and the
mandate to do so. But I don’t have any particular reaction on…
Inner
City
Press:
I’m sorry, they are saying that these are newly planted
mines, that they are not old remnants of war, that, in fact, the
Government is planting mines, and so I am just wondering, is that the
kind of thing that UNAMID would go and check out?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Haq: Well, first we would have to collect
information to make sure that there is… we are always aware of
reports from either side about different types of conflict or
militarization, and then, first we would need to check those out. If
there are mines in place, we would take action to make sure that they
would be demined.
Five
days
later,
even after Inner City Press reiterated the question to a Department
of Peacekeeping Operations spokesman outside a French-sponsored
session about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there is no
answer.
On
May 3, Inner City
Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman:
Inner
City
Press:
there have been two separate reports of children dying in
IDP [internally displaced persons] camps in Darfur due to, they say,
lack of medical care, the residents of the camps. One is in the
well-known Khor Omer camp, the other one is Mershing camp. And I am
just wondering how to square with this, I saw a recent UN News
Centre, UN press release, about increased humanitarian access. Is
this… I mean, is UNAMID [African Union-UN Hybrid Operation in
Darfur] aware of people dying in camps due to lack of medical care
and if so, what is being done to gain access to those camps?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I’ll
ask my colleagues in DPKO [Department of
Peacekeeping Operations] to provide an update.
But
when will the
promised updates arrive? Inner City Press also asked Araud
about the
UN continuing to fly Ahmed Haroun, indicted by the International
Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, to Abyei, after France's
demarche and then more alleged murders in South Kordofan. Araud did
not answer this part of the question. Watch this site.
* * *
UN
in
S.
Kordofan
Confirms 19 Murders, Won't Say if Harun Did It:
Flights Continue?
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May
1
-- Amid the killing in Sudan, the UN has two $1
billion peacekeeping operations but refuses to answer basic questions
about who is killing whom, much less stopping it.
While
numerous
questions
about
Darfur that Inner City Press has asked the UN --
bombing of clinics by the government, alleged laying of land mies --
have gone unanswered, on April 29 the UN did send an answer to a
question asked nine day previous about South Kordofan (see below).
The
problem is,
after more than a week, the UN could or would not provide any
information about who was responsible for the killing of at least 19
civilians there. In fact, the person accused is Ahmed Harun, who
despite being indicted by the International Criminal Court for war
crimes in Darfur has been flown in UN helicopters to Abyei at least
twice.
In
the middle of April, Inner City Press began asking about allegations
that Harun
had
just
organized
a militia to attack El-Faid Um Abdullah, the home
village of his deputy governor in South Kordofan, Abdelaziz al-Hilu.
The accusation
was
made
by
the deputy governor himself:
“Abdelaziz
al-Hilu
accused
governor
Ahmed Harun, who is from a rival party and
will contest local elections against him on May 2, of 'organizing an
attack by the Popular Defence Forces on my village, El-Faid Um
Abdullah. They killed more than 20 people and burned between 300 and
500 houses in the early morning. Two women and four children were
among those who burned inside the houses,' he said.”
Inner
City
Press
asked
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner, and then UN deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq on April 20:
Inner
City
Press:
On
Sudan, there is this report from the Deputy Governor
of South Kordofan, saying that the popular defence force attacked his
village, killed 20 people. And he blames it on Ahmed Haroun… in
fact the Governor, the Khartoum-backed Governor of the state. So,
it’s a pretty high-profile person accusing him of being behind this
attack, and I wonder, does UNMIS, what have they done in terms of
investigating Mr. Haroun’s role, given that they have been flying
Mr. Haroun as an ostensible peacemaker to Abyei?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson
Haq:
I was told that UNMIS has gone to this area
in Southern Kordofan, and it is trying to obtain more information
about what’s been going on there.
For
more than a
week, there was no answer from the UN spokesperson's office. In the
interim, Inner City Press asked number
two UN Peacekeeping official
Atul Khare, and US Ambassador Susan Rice about it.
Khare
said
that
the
killing including “inter alia women and
children,” in “the village of the deputy governor.” He said the
UN would be paying more attention to the area, mentioning
humanitarian issues.
But
what about investigating Abdelaziz al-Hilu's claim that Ahmed Harun
was involved? If the UN confirmed this, could or would they keep
flying Harun around on UN helicopters?
Ban & Khare, murders by and flights to Ahmed Harun not shown
As
US Ambassador
Susan Rice left a UN Security Council meeting on April 20, Inner
City Press asked her if the new charges against Harun should end the
UN's flights for Harun. "He was already indicted," Rice
said. "At this point the concern is constant."
But
has the US spoken against the UN flying Harun? Inner City Press has
repeatedly asked the US Mission for a comment, without receiving any.
Finally
on
April
28
leaving another session about UN Peacekeeping, Inner City Press
asked an official of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations
about the failure to answer questions, not only about South Kordofan
but also Darfur.
While
the
Darfur
questions
still remain unresponded to, on April 29 the following was
sent:
From:
UN
Spokesperson
-
Do Not Reply
<unspokesperson-donotreply@un.org>
Date: Fri, Apr 29, 2011
at 10:54 AM
To: Matthew Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Subject:
Your question on Southern Kordofan
The
upcoming
elections
in
Southern Kordofan, which are to commence on 2
May, are of importance to both parties and the increase in violence
is of great concern to us. The National Congress Party/Southern Sudan
People's Liberation Moverment partnership was a stabilising factor
over the last two years but since this election will influence
Southern Kordofan’s political balance of power, the rhetoric of the
election campaign has been increasingly aggressive. As a result, on
13 April 2011, four predominantly Nuba villages within the Locality
of Al Rashad (200 kms NE of Kadugli) were targeted, resulting in the
death of 19 persons (3 children, 4 females, 12 males) and the injury
of 29 (3 females, 24 males).
Not
only is this
response 16 days after the fact, and nine days after the question was
asked -- it also make no effort to identify who is responsible. Since
the person accused is one whom the UN has flown around in a
helicopter to meet with the type of nomadic tribes accused of murder,
shouldn't the UN want to know, and be required to disclose? Watch
this site.
Footnote:
On
the
Doha
process on Darfur, after Djibril Bassole announced it
would become foreign minister of post-mutiny Burkina Faso, Inner City
Press asked the UN if he would be allowed to stay on as mediator, as
he reportedly wanted. Finally the UN squawked an answer, that he
would end as mediator on April 30. This is how Khartoum wants it.
A
top UN
peacekeeping official told Inner City Press that Bassole will attend
the upcoming session in Doha, but only as foreign minister of Burkina
Faso for its involvement in the process. This too is how Khartoum
wants it. Watch this site.
* * *
, 
