UN
Council
Trip to Sudan is Back On, After Obama and Taha Praise, US to
Announce
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 28, 2010 -- The UN Security Council is, after
delay and negotiations, going on a trip to Sudan, Inner City Press
exclusively learned on Tuesday morning. “The US will take the floor
and annouce it,” a well place source told Inner City Press.
The
issue was
whether Sudan would require the Security Council Ambassadors to meet
with and even take photos with President Omar al Bashir, who has been
indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and
genocide.
The
US and UK, in
charge of different parts of the long planned Sudan trip, have been
trying to get Sudan to drop these demands, to avoid the photo op.
Now,
days after US
President Obama gave a speech about Sudan in which he mentioned
neither the ICC nor Bashir, and Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Taha
praised the new US approach, the impasse has been resolved.
Bashir with UN Ban, Obama speech and UNSC trip not shown
Multiple
sources
say the trip will be announced later at Tuesday. But at what cost?
Watch this site.
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In
Darfur,
UN Prepares To Hand Over Bashir's Enemies for “Blood
Money- Exclusive
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Must Credit
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 28, 2010 -- In Darfur, the Joint African Union -
UN peacekeeping mission UNAMID is preparing to turn over to the
government of Omar al Bashir five supporters of rebel leader Abdel
Wahid Nur who have been “accused by Sudanese authorities of having
committed crimes,” as shown by UNAMID documents obtained by Inner
City Press.
For
two months the
government of Bashir, who has been indicted by the International
Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide, has demanded that UNAMID
and the UN turn over the five, who “sought refuge in the Community
Policing Center of the Kalma Camp for Internally Displaced Persons”
after an outburst of violence in the camp.
Bashir's
government
imposed a blockade on the camp, not allowing in food or fuel or
medicine, and now seeks to close down the camp.
A
draft letter
from UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari to Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali
Karti recites that Bashir's government “explained its position of
principle that Sudan has the right to apply the death penalty as such
a penalty is not illegal under international law and is part of
Sudan's criminal code.”
Nevertheless,
Gambari
writes, “without prejudice to its position of principle,
the Government has undertaken to work in a co-operative manner with
UNAMID... with a view to bringing the issue to a mutually acceptable
conclusion.”
Click here to see
Gambari's letter, as obtained exclusively by Inner City Press.
In
the concluding
paragraph of his letter, Gambari “propose[s] that the issue of the
five individuals be brought to a conclusion... on the basis of the
additional
terms set forth in the attachment hereto... to ensure that
the five individuals concerned are transferred to the relevant
authorities of the Government.”
So
what are the
terms under which the UN, Gambari and UNAMID would turn over the five
to Bashir's government?
Click here to see
Gambari's and the UN's Additional Terms, as obtained exclusively by
Inner City Press.
Amazingly to some, under Gambari's
Additional Terms, “blood relatives of the victims of the alleged
crimes will be called upon to exercise their power to waive the death
penalty and seek payment of compensation in the form of 'blood money'
instead.”
UN's Ban shakes with Bashir, Kalma Five and blood
money not shown
This
in
reminiscent of an incident in Geneina, multiply described to Inner
City Press, in which UNAMID became involved in and even proposed the
payment of “blood money” by IDPs to janjaweed who came into the
camp beating up IDPs and demanding money for a person they said had
been killed.
The
“Additional
Terms of the Government's assurances for the transfer of the five
individuals from the Kalma CPC to the host country authorities”
ends with assurances that “UNAMID's Human Rights Division” could
visit the prisoners, and that Bashir's government will not “undermine
UNAMID's ability to conduct its activities.”
But
Bashir's
government has restricted the movement of UNAMID peacekeepers and
helicopters, as peacekeepers and civilians as in the Tarabat Market
early this money lay dying. The UN's human rights divisions in Sudan
have been accused by opposition leaders of failing even to come on a
timely basis to examine the body of a slain Darfuri student.
(The UN
says it tried, but the Government stopped it -- even if true, hardly
a basis for replying on the assurances in the Additional Terms. On
September 27, Inner City Press asked a series of questions to Gambari,
UN Humanitarian Coordinator Georg Charpentier and Under Secretary
General for Field Support Susana Malcorra, click here for
article, here
for video.)
In
this case of
the five, UNAMID would rely on “the Ajaweed traditional justice”
and, again amazingly, that “the President” -- indicted war
criminal Omar al Bashir -- “has the prerogative of mercy which he
has confirmed he will exercise in the event that the death penalty is
imposed on the accused.”
To
many, this is a
new low for the UN: accepting the promise of an indicted war criminal
not to kill again as a basis to turn over more of his enemies to him.
Watch this site.
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