As
Darfur
IDPs Won't Meet with UN, Failure to Protect Extends to Health
Care
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 8 -- Outside El Fasher in Darfur, UN Humanitarian
Coordinator Valerie
Amos waited on November 7 to speak with
internally displaced people in the Al-Salam IDP camp.
But
given the UN's
and Security Council members' failure to follow up on Sudan's arrest
and harassment in Darfur following the UN Security Council's visit a
month ago, Al-Salam leaders reportedly
did not meet with Amos. If the
UN can't or won't protect witnesses, why would people take the chance
to speak with the UN?
Since
returning
from the Council trip, Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the UN
and Security Council members, including this month's president Mark
Lyall Grant of the UK, what is being done to investigate and act on
the harassment and arrests that followed the visit to Abu Shouk camp
on October 8.
Despite
the passage
of a month, and the request that UN Peacekeeping and its mission in
Darfur, UNAMID, led by Ibrahim Gambari, confirm or deny that those
arrested after the visit did not meet or plan the meeting with
Council members, nothing has been done.
Why
then is the UN
surprised by this
report:
“On
Sunday at Camp al-Salam on the outskirts of El-Fasher, the capital of
the western region of Darfur, elders scrapped a planned meeting with
Amos without giving reasons for their decision. 'I hope that there is
no fear,' Amos told reporters after the camp leaders failed to show
up for their meeting.”
Why
wouldn't there
be fear?
Valerie Amos & Gambari, action on Abu Shouk
harassment not shown
Meanwhile,
even when the UN does respond to questions about
actions in Sudan, it is usually with platitudes, not investigation.
On November
5 at the UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky:
Inner
City
Press: The SPLM [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement] is saying
that… they have come out with an allegation that Southerners who
live in the North are being told, in Government medical facilities,
are being told they’ll only get medical treatment if they vote for
unity. I wonder if it’s something… it’s in the Sudan Tribune
and I am assuming elsewhere. I am wondering if that’s something…
I guess that would be an UNMIS [United Nations Mission in Sudan]
issue, or perhaps… whether the UN system is aware of that
allegation, what they think of it, if it is true and what they are
doing to find out if it is true?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well, at the very least, if they are reading the Sudan
Tribune like you, they will have seen the same reports and I would
assume that they are doing so. We will need to check whether they
have further information that was not in this Sudan Tribune. But, I
don’t have that right now.
Inner
City
Press: Okay. No, no, I mean I am pretty sure they would be
aware of this, I just wonder if this is the type of thing that they
feel a duty to investigate to see if it’s true or to make some
statement about.
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
As I say, let’s first establish what they know about it.
It
sounds like a
needed and too rare process, disclosure by the UN of what it knows
about human rights violations. Three days later -- not broken by any
weekend in Sudan -- the UN responded:
Subject:
Your
question on Sudan
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
To:
Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Date: Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at
10:23 AM
In
response
to your question last Friday on reports that people who do
not vote for unity in Sudan could be denied medical help, we have the
following to say:
"We
call
on all the CPA parties to take steps to ensure a peaceful and
inclusive referenda process, and in the time remaining, the
Government of Sudan must demonstrate political will to ensure the
credibility of the referendum."
But
what about
finding out if UNMIS has investigated the report, if it confirmed it,
and what it will do about it? Watch this site.
* * *
On
S.
Sudan
Referendum, EU Countries Behind on Funding Pledges, Speak of
Delay
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November
5 -- With shooting and kidnappings continuing in
Darfur, the Sudanese government has reportedly taken to conditioning
medical care in Khartoum to those from South Sudan upon their voting
for unity and not separation in the referendum scheduled for January
9.
Inner
City Press
asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky about this and kidnappings in
Darfur on November 5 and was, again, promised future answers.
Meanwhile, Inner City Press got a read out of which countries have
actually followed through on their pledges to the Basket Fund for the
referendum, and which have not.
Sweden
has
pledged $6.76 million but has so far given nothing.
Likewise,
there
has been no follow through yet on these pledges: European Union $4.23
million, Denmark $3.38 million, Australia $2.69 million.
The
UK
remains $3.87 million short of its pledge.
France
has not paid
ANY of
the mere $600,000 it pledged.
One
wonders what
these countries, which say the referendum is so important, are
waiting from. Privately diplomats from several of these countries
tell the Press that the planned South Sudan referendum will nearly
certainly have to be postponed, and that their work consists of
trying to convince the South Sudanese not to then go ahead and hold
their own referendum.
They also
express concern that once Khartoum
learns they are okay with a date later from January 9, the new date
will become a new target to go past and delay.
In S. Sudan, UK PR, France DPR, follow through on
funding not yet shown
Here
is the table
of pledges and actual contributions to the Basket Fund for the south
Sudan Referendum, followed by the UN's transcript of its November 5
noon briefing:
|
No.
|
Donor
|
Amount
($
million) Committed
|
Amount
($ million) Received
|
|
1
|
Netherlands
|
$14.00
|
$7.00
|
|
|
|
2
|
Norway
|
$4.78
|
$4.78
|
|
3
|
Canada (CIDA)
|
$6.86
|
$6.86
|
|
4
|
Sweden
|
$6.76
|
|
|
|
|
5
|
European Union
|
$4.23
|
|
|
6
|
Japan
|
$8.17
|
$8.17
|
|
7
|
DFID
|
$11.63
|
$7.76
|
|
|
|
8
|
Denmark
|
$3.38
|
|
|
9
|
Australia
|
$2.69
|
|
|
10
|
France
|
$0.60
|
|
|
|
TOTAL
|
$63.10
|
$34.57
|
Source: UNDP response to Inner City Press 11/10
question
UN's
transcription
of
its November 5 noon briefing:
Inner
City
Press:
there are also these reports of three pilots from a
Latvian helicopter company working for WFP [World Food Programme]
that have been taken hostage. Can you confirm that? And there seems
to be some unclarity about what country they are from or who took
them. What’s the UN going to do?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well,
I can confirm that three crew members working for the
United Nations Humanitarian Air Service contracted to the World Food
Programme, as you mentioned, were abducted in Nyala town on Thursday.
They are all Latvian nationals and are helicopter crewmen. And we
don’t have any more information at this point.
Inner
City
Press:
Thanks. The SPLM [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement]
is saying that… they have come out with an allegation that
Southerners who live in the North are being told, in Government
medical facilities, are being told they’ll only get medical
treatment if they vote for unity. I wonder if it’s something…
it’s in the Sudan Tribune and I am assuming elsewhere. I am
wondering if that’s something… I guess that would be an UNMIS
[United Nations Mission in Sudan] issue, or perhaps… whether the UN
system is aware of that allegation, what they think of it, if it is
true and what they are doing to find out if it is true?
Spokesperson:
Well,
at the very least, if they are reading the Sudan Tribune like
you, they will have seen the same reports and I would assume that
they are doing so. We will need to check whether they have further
information that was not in this Sudan Tribune. But, I don’t have
that right now.
Inner
City
Press:
Okay. No, no, I mean I am pretty sure they would be
aware of this, I just wonder if this is the type of thing that they
feel a duty to investigate to see if it’s true or to make some
statement about.
Spokesperson:
As
I say, let’s first establish what they know about it.
We'll
see. Watch
this site.
, 
