Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

As UN Now Probes New Darfur Attack, Silence from Council on Sudan Press Crackdown

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 3 -- With the UN speaking less and less on human rights, the UNAMID peacekeeping mission in Darfur has provided fewer and fewer reports about casualties of fighting in the area, about arrests and crackdowns on media.

  On November 3, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky why UNAMID had nothing to say about days old reports of a new attack on civilians in Tawila, leading to at least 18 casualties being taken to the hospital in El Fasher, UNAMID's headquarters.

  Less than three hours later, Nesirky's office confirmed, only over the loudspeaker squawk system in the UN press floor and not anywhere in writing, that UNAMID is “aware of reports” of the attack on Tawila and “is investigating them... there have been other incidents recently.”

  But most of these incidents, UNAMID has had no comment on. Many observers opine that UNAMID's silence emboldens the government and its proxies to step up their attacks on civilians in Darfur.

   The UN has still not spoken on arrests by the Sudanese authorities in the Darfur IDP camps, both Abu Shouk where the UN Security Council visited, and now in Al Salaam in North Darfur, about which Inner City Press asked on November 3.

  Written questions directed to Nesirky's office on November 2 about UNAMID's selective reporting -- and not just Humanitarian Coordinator Georg Charpentier's -- and about UN conflicts of interest and UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari's mode of transport have still not been answered.

IDPs in Tawila, protection of civilians not shown

  At the Security Council stakeout earlier on November 3, Inner City Press asked this month's Council president Mark Lyall Grant of the UK, the lead country on Darfur, if the Council planned any meeting, discussion or action on the Government's radio station closure. On November 2, the US State Department's spokesman PJ Crowley, then Ambassador Susan Rice, spoke and wrote on the topic.

  As Ambassador Rice entered the Council Wednesday morning for a Council meeting about Ivory Coast, Inner City Press asked if the US would be asking for Security Council action on this issue.

  Lyall Grant later on Wednesday, after the meeting, told Inner City Press that “as President of the Security Council, there are no plans to discuss the issue specifically” although he said Sudan is “the centerpiece of the British presidency” of the Council. He added that in his national capacity, the UK regrets any restriction on free press, especially at this “sensitive time.” Video here, from Minute 3:04.

France, on the other hand, had as the UN had nearly nothing to say about Darfur, or even the wider Sudan. Watch this site.

From the UN's transcript of Tuesday, November 2:

Inner CityPress: Does the UN have any comment on these arrests of Darfur human rights activists, both in Khartoum and in Darfur, the closing of a radio station, and can it confirm that Georg Charpentier has said that there should be none but an essential monitoring mission sent out from now until February, as some in Darfur are saying?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: On the last question, we’ll check. On the first, likewise on the middle one about the radio station, we are aware of those reports about the closing down of the radio station and the reported arrests of some journalists. Clearly, we would urge the authorities to ensure that journalists can carry out their work freely.

Inner City Press: Human Rights Watch did a report on these arrests and the activists, saying they note that UNAMID [African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur] doesn’t report on human rights conditions, and that Charpentier hasn’t put out a report on this since November 2009. Why did the UN stop reporting on these topics at this important time?

Spokesperson: Well, you asked Ms. [Valerie] Amos that, and I think that she gave you an answer. I don’t have anything to add to what she said last time. Maybe there will be an update at some point from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but I don’t have that at the moment.

Inner City Press: Sorry, I’m sorry…

Spokesperson: Yes, there are other people who have questions.

Inner City Press: I understand, but the difficulty is that if we start at 12:15, it becomes tricky. But the human rights and the humanitarian reporting are two separate issues. The humanitarian, I understand that it’s a joint thing with the Government, but the human rights reporting is something that just seems to have ceased, and some are now saying that there’s a Joint Monitoring Assessment Centre [JMAC] that in fact has reports of civilian deaths and doesn’t report them to the public. Somehow they leak out to some, but… I guess I wanted to ask you… it’s two separate things.

Spokesperson: Let me find out, Matthew. Let me find out.

We're still waiting. Watch this site.