UNITED
NATIONS, March
27, updated --
After Thabo
Mbeki and
Abdulsalami
Abubakar had a
closed door
interactive
session with
the UN
Security
Council about
the Sudans on
Wednesday
morning, again
no outcome was
agreed to.
The
day after
Sudan and
South Sudan
signed their Implementation
Matrix,
Russia
proposed a
short press
statement of
praise.
The US
wanted
something
longer
including
criticism, for
example on
Southern
Kordofan and
Blue Nile, or
their
long-pending
draft
Presidential
Statement. Sudan's
bragging,
reported that
morning by
Inner City
Press, was
cited in the
Council. In
pique, there
was no
statement.
And
now, again, no
statement.
Inner City
Press asked
Russia's
Vitaly
Churkin if
that meant the
US draft PRST
was still
pending. Video
here
from Minute
5:49.
Churkin
scoffed, and
mentioned that
under the
current
dynamic
nothing would
be possible to
be adopted on
Sudan -- or on
Darfur, he
said, a
reference to
the pending
UK-drafted
Presidential
Statement.
Update:
Mark Lyall
Grant of the
UK later
confirmed to
Inner City
Press that the
Darfur PRST
"is being
blocked."
Another
Western
source,
insisting on anonymity,
countered that
it was Churkin
who “blew up
the press
elements” by
saying Russia
wouldn't agree
to anything
that didn't
include a
lifting of
sanction and
debt relief.
Could this
be hyperbole?
While
we'll wait for
Russia's
response on
this -- and
will publish
it -- a senior
UN
official
complained,
it's hard to
work for this
Council, they
won't
offer praise
even when you
get something
accomplished.
That
doesn't seem
to apply to
Romano Prodi
in Mali, who
has
accomplished
little but
still gets
praised. Is
there a double
standard?
Watch this
site.
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