Amid
Fighting
in Sudan, UN SC Cancels June 10 Meeting,
Waiting on Bashir
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 10 -- Amid the killings in Abyei and now Southern
Kordofan, the US
Mission to the UN last week pushed for a Security
Council Presidential Statement calling for Khartoum's forces to
withdraw.
The
US had wanted
the PRST to explicit set a follow up Council meeting on Friday June
10, but this, like references to Khartoum's “occupation” of and
“ethnic cleansing” in Abyei was omitted. Instead it called for a
monitoring meeting in the coming days. Even Khartoum's defenders,
though, said that this meant June 10.
But
now the June
10 follow up is canceled. Sources tell Inner City Press that based on
a letter from Sudan, and an impending meeting between Thabo Mbeki,
Salva Kiir and Omar al Bashir, under International Criminal Court
indictment, the Council has canceled Friday's meeting.
This
will be bad
news for demonstrators who circulated a call for a protest at the UN
on Friday morning, trying to get the killings in Southern Kordofan
added to the Sudan issues set to be discussed on Friday. Now, Sudan
will not be discussed by the Council on Friday. What will happen
over the weekend? Watch this site.
* * *
At
UN
on Abyei Draft, Sudan PR Denies Food Theft, Dismisses
Burning of “Huts," UNSC to Set June 10 Meeting
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 3, updated -- Seventy hours after the US
introduced a draft
Presidential Statement on Abyei,
Sudan's Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman walked into the Security
Council in a bright white suit.
Already a Council Deputy Permanent Representative had told Inner City
Press that more work was needed on the Statement, to begin at 1 pm on
Friday.
As
Sudan's
Ambassador walked out of the Council, Inner City Press asked him
about the draft. He said it had been inaccurate to call Sudan's tanks
in Abyei an occupation. (Inner City Press is told that this word is
being removed). He took issue with the phrase that the influx of
Miseriya was an attempt at ethnic cleansing.
“That is
prejudging,” he said. “Let it happen, genocide or ethnic
cleansing, and then talk about it.”
Sudan PR & Ban Ki-moon, follow through on food
theft not shown
When
Inner City
Press asked him about the accusation that tons of food was stolen in
Abyei, he said he hadn't seen the World Food Program see that. Asked
by another journalist about the burning of houses, he said, “those
are huts, these things happen in war. Where are you from - Lebanon?
These things happen there.”
And
then he was
gone, at least until 1 pm.
Update of 11:40 am
-- a Deputy Permanent Representative tells Inner City Press that the
meeting on the Sudan PRST has been moved up from 1 until just after the
consultations on UNOCA, as early as noon. What else will come out of
the draft? Watch this site.
Update of 12:30 pm
-- Inner City Press is told that if the Council finally reaches
agreement on this PRST, it will be adopted by being read out in the
Chamber at 4 pm...
Update
of
1:19 pm -- after a Deputy Permanent Representative tells Inner
City Press that the Sudan PRST is “definitely” going to be
adopted at 4 pm, another source explains to Inner City Press that
there is only one paragraph open, in which the US wants to require
new meetings on the topic every seven days, other members don't.
Eminently solvable.
Update
of
2:26 pm -- while another Deputy Permanent Representative tells
Inner City Press that the Council has agreed to hold another meeting
on Sudan next week, says they have still not agreed on how to express
it in language and “put it on paper.” A Western representative
asks Inner City Press, if we put it out at 4, the news can still be
distributed, right? But of course...
Update
of
2:51 pm -- the Political Coordinators have just left the Council,
a number of them telling Inner City Press that the agreement, to be
typed up by the US and translated into French in which Gabon will
read it out, is to remain seized of the matter and to calendar
another meeting on Sudan for June 10... Timing of adoption now
depends on US typing up, and translation...
Update
of
4:32 pm -- while the players have arrived for adoption of the
Sudan PRST at the Security Council, still the meeting hasn't started.
Meanwhile, reports
of a UN leak saying it WAS ethnic cleansing in
Abyei, here
Update
of
4:39 pm -- a Deputy Permanent Representative tells Inner City
Press, “the French translation is not ready.”
* * *
UN
Admits
2d
Flight
of
ICC
Darfur
Indictee
Haroun
to
Abyei
in
Sudan,
Impunity
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March
4,
updated -- The UN
has for a second time offered a free UN
flight in Sudan to Ahmed Haroun, under indictment by the
International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, the UN
admitted Friday in response to questions from Inner City Press.
On
March 3 the UN
Security Council met about renewed fighting in the disputed Abyei
region. Back in January, Inner City Press got the UN to acknowledge
they had flown ICC indictee Haroun from South Kordofan, where he
serves fellow ICC indictee Omar al Bashir as governor, to Abyei.
The
UN has defended
this controversial flight by saying that Haroun and Haroun alone
could stop violence in Abyei. The UN never explained why the
government of Sudan, which has an air force currently bombing civilians
in Jebel Marra in Darfur, couldn't itself fly Haroun.
The
UN said it was
a scheduled flight, then UN Mission in Sudan chief Haile Menkerios
admitted to
Inner City Press that it was a special flight. Inner City Press is
told such flights cost $40,000, and the UN has confirm no
reimbursement has been sought from the Bashir government.
But
now the
violence has continued, making the UN flight of ICC indictee Haroun
harder to justify even by the UN's own argument.
March
3
in
front
of
the
Security
Council,
Inner
City
Press
asked
Council
president
for
March Li Baodong of China if the UN Peacekeeping official who briefed
the Council, Atul Khare, had mentioned if Haroun would again be flown
in a UN helicopter. Li Baodong did not directly answer.
At
the March 4 UN
noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm or deny that that the UN would
once again fly ICC indictee Haroun to Abyei, even now that his work in
connection with the first flight has proved ineffective.
Nesirky
said
he
would
check.
Ten
minutes
later,
Nesirky's
deputy
Farhan
Haq
announced
by
speaker
to all UN correspondents that yes, Haroun attended today's
meeting in Abyei, and yes, “he was transported” by the UN.
This
UN
promotes
impunity,
even
for
one
of
the
few
people
indicted
for
war
crimes by
the ICC. Meanwhile Ban Ki-moon brags about the Security Council's partial
referral of the situation in Libya to the ICC -- a referral that Ban
Ki-moon did not even call for until after the Council voted to make
the referral.
This
UN
is
promoting
and
enshrining
lawlessness,
with
no
transparency
or
accountability.
Watch
this
site.
Update
of 3:48 pm -- Human Rights Watch, via Richard Dicker, submitted
this
comment:
“This
is the second time in recent weeks the UN has transported Ahmed
Haroun who is charged by the ICC with war crimes in Darfur. We have
real concerns because the U.N. should not be in the business of
transporting Haroun. There needs to be an extremely high threshold of
urgency for such action by UNMIS.”
Responses
have
been
sought
from
the
Missions
to
the
UN
of
France,
the
UK
and the US,
with the latter two asked if they knew in advance of the UN's new
flight of ICC indictee Haroun. Given her
statements
this
year
about
social
media, & after hours of non-response by the US Mission
to the UN,@AmbassadorRice
has been asked directly as well. Watch
this site.
Update
of
4:30
pm
--
Then
this,
from
UK
Mission
to
the
UN
spokesman
Daniel
Shepherd:
“As
spokesperson, I would only reiterate the message that my two
Ambassadors have both said on the record (and published by Inner City
Press) first time around: that we aren’t going to second guess how
UNMIS fulfills its mandate to provide good offices to the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) parties in efforts to resolve
differences through dialogue and negotiations. I’d only add that
this work is particularly important at this sensitive time, to
contain any potential escalation after the recent Abyei violence.”
We could
note
again that violence has persisted despite the UN flying ICC indictee
Ahmed Haroun in the first time, and that it is the role of UN member
states to oversee the UN Secretariat, not to defer in this case to
what some see as its promotion of impunity - but at least the UK
would put its position on the record.
Update
of
4:43
pm
--
this
too
has
come
in,
perhaps
in
response:
Date:
Fri,
Mar
4,
201
Subject: Haroun and Abyei
To: Matthew.Lee [at]
innercitypress.com
You
guys
ask
great
questions!
Have
you
noticed
perhaps
that
the
United
Nations
seems
to
be unaware of who is causing the violence in Abyei.
And yet "diplomatic sources" report seeing the burial of 33
bodies - all southerners.
The
Arab
nomads
say
the
violence
started
when
SPLM
police
shot
at
them
(Hitler
used
a similar ploy to invade Poland) - and today thousands
of civilians fled Abyei fearing another crisis like in June 2008. The
Dinka Ngok villages north of Abyei, such as Maker, have been
burnt to the ground. The end explains the means. There is a
creeping ethnic cleansing going on in the Abyei region despite the
agreements of 2005 and the Court of Arbitration ruling in 2010.
Why
fly
Haroun
to
Abyei
-
what
is
his
cv?
It
is,
as
you
correctly point
out, that of arming arab militias to burn villages. I hope to see
more of your questions pinning the UN to the responsibility to
protect.
, 
