At
UN
Sudan
Analogies of
Skeletons
&
Siblings, Oil
at the Root,
Engineering
Nobel?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 27 --
After US
Ambassador
Susan Rice
circulated a
draft
resolution on
Sudan midday
on Thursday, a
process not
only of
review but
also snarking
started at the
UN.
The
most
contentious
portion of the
draft is
Operative
Paragraph 9,
which
"Expresses
its
intention to
review
compliance by
Sudan and
South Sudan
with the
decisions
contained in
this
resolution,
and expresses
its
determination,
in the event
that one or
both of the
parties have
not
complied, to
take
appropriate
additional
measures under
Article 41 of
the Charter."
As
more than one
diplomat
wondered, how
can the
Council
threaten
sanctions if a
country
doesn't engage
in mediation,
or engage in
ways that
others
want?
Alongside
a first
read-through
session
Thursday
afternoon, one
Security
Council member
told Inner
City Press the
fight between
Sudan and
South Sudan is
a
like "a battle
of skeletons,"
in which
neither side
really
has the force
to push the
fight through.
Another
analogy
offered
analogized
South Sudan to
a younger
brother who
attacks his
older sibling,
counting on
the parent -
in this case
mostly the
United States
- to step in
to break it
up.
But
Sudanese
diplomats have
complained to
Inner City
Press that the
South Sudanese
army is
equipped with
weapons "never
seen in this
conflict for
decades," and
not old or
used Gaddafi
weapons.
Sudan's
other
complaint, of
course, is
that the
goalposts keep
being moved,
and the
country is now
$7 billion a
year poorer
due to the
loss of South
Sudan, which
now stopped
pumping oil.
It's said that
Thabo Mbeki
and
his panel are
supposed to
try to raise a
third of that
from other
countries,
without so far
much success.
The
draft
resolution
would have the
Council
"strongly
condemning...
the
damage to
economic
infrastructure,
in particular
oil
installations."
With
the serious
damage to the
Heglig oil
facilities,
the problem is
more
intractable.
Even if the
gap in oil
transfer fees,
between $36
and 50 cents
per
barrel, were
bridge the
pipeline to
take oil from
South Sudan's
Unity
State to Port
Sudan is now
broken in
Heglig.
Here's
an idea:
whoever sends
enough
engineers and
construction
workers to fix
the
damage in
Heglig, to
ease the
financial
problems that
fuel this
conflict,
should be
considered for
a Nobel Peace
Prize. Watch
this
site.
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