As
S.
Sudan
Complains of
Arrests at
Machar's in
Khartoum,
Mbeki to Brief
April 17
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 16 -- As
the conflict
between North
and South
Sudan
continues to
escalate,
Thabo Mbeki is
now scheduled
to brief the
Security
Council on
April 17 at
11:30 am,
Inner City
Press has
learned.
Earlier
on April
16, Inner City
Press asked by
US Ambassador
Susan Rice,
this month's
Security
Council
president, and
UN deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey
about Sudan's
bombing of the
UN
peacekeeping
camp at Mayom,
and South
Sudan's
continued
occupation of
Heglig.
Among
Inner City
Press'
questions to
Rice was one
about
complaints
South Sudan
filed
with the
Council over
the weekend,
that "the
house of
[South
Sudan Vice
President]
Riek Machar in
Khartoum had
been raided by
the
Sudanese
authorities
and people
arrested."
Rice
didn't answer
that part of
the question,
but the April
15 letter
states that
among
the seven
arrested in
Machar's
house, two
were minors;
the house was
vandalized and
all the
furniture
removed.
Del
Buey's read
out on the
conflict was
limited to
three bombings
by Sudan in
South
Sudan's Unity
State, nothing
on bombings in
Upper Nile and
Warrap
States
complained of
in South
Sudan's April
14 letter, nor
the
occupation of
Heglig,
presumably a
topic when
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon spoke
over the
weekend with
Sudan's
Foreign
Minister Ali
Karti.
Since
Ban spoke
with South
Sudan
president
Salva Kiir,
and usually
tried to speak
to
heads of state
not their
minister, some
surmised
either than
Ban was
avoiding
Sudan's
president Omar
al Bashir
since he is
indicted by
the
International
Criminal Court
for genocide,
or that Bashir
wouldn't
take Ban's
call. Or both,
as was
suggested to
Inner City
Press.
Ban's
envoy
Gambari,
however, has
taken photos
with Bashir at
a wedding
reception
for Chad's
Idriss Deby
and the
daughter of
janjaweed
military
founder
Musa Hilal,
and his UN
gave flights
to ICC
indicted Ahmed
Harun, so
perhaps the
latter is more
likely. Watch
this site.
, 
