UNITED
NATIONS, May
21 -- New
light is cast
on war crimes
in Sudan 2010
to
2012 by a
study released
today, Anatomy
of a Conflict.
In 160
pages,
with over 700
footnotes, the
Harvard
Humanitarian
Initiative's
(HHI's) Signal
Program for
Human Security
and Technology
details the
movements of
Sudan army
units and
commanders,
the
destruction of
buildings, the
looting of
Abyei.
Inner
City Press
covered Sudan
then and now;
the report (at
note 64) cites
Inner City
Press
questions and
reporting
about the UN
providing free
helicopter
flights to
Abyei for
Ahmad Haroun,
indicted by
the
International
Criminal Court
of war crimes
in Darfur.
Haroun
is now
advising those
who attacked
and killed the
Dinka Ngok
paramount
chief in
Abyei; the UN
then as now is
refusing to
answer
questions
about its
actions and
even mandate
during that
fight.
The
report notes
that in
October 2011
Inner City
Press asked
Herve
Ladsous, who
had just
arrived as the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row to
lead UN
Peacekeepering,
about flight
of janjaweed
militia from
Darfur
to Blue Nile
states
(Note 525).
Ladsous,
who
at that time
was willing to
answer Inner
City Press'
questions
until his
answer got him
into trouble, said
that "We have
no
mandate to
follow who is
flying from
where."
No
mandate? Three
peacekeeping
missions, a
billion
dollars each,
and no
mandate? No
performance?
No
accountability?
Now
since May
2012, Ladsous
refuses
to answer
Inner City
Press
questions,
including
about the
mandate of
UNISFA in the
recently
killing of the
Dinka Ngok
paramount
chief.
South
Sudan
Permanent
Representative
Francis Deng,
the murdered
chief's
brother, told
Inner City
Press
that UN
Peacekeeping
is not
implementing
the protection
of civilians
mandate given
to it by the
Security
Council.
But still, no
response
from Ladsous.
HHI's
director
Michael
VanRooyen in
releasing the
embargoed
study said it
"demonstrat[es]
how
humanitarian
actors can see
other, future
disasters in
new ways." UN
Peacekeeping,
to the degree
it is an
actor, should
not only see
but act in new
ways in the
future.
The
Signal Program
report is
useful, and we
anticipate
referring to
it
more in the
future. But it
does not cast
a critical
enough eye on
UN
Peacekeeping
and its
leadership:
these are the
common
denominators
in
the failure to
protect
civilians in
Sudan, now in
South Sudan,
and in
Eastern
Congo.
That is a
study that is
needed. Watch
this site.
, 
