At
UN,
Sudan Says
JEM's Gone
South from
Libya,
Bashir's
Tripoli Trip
Not Raised
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 11 --
With Darfur
the topic in
the Security
Council
on Wednesday
morning, some
were surprised
that Sudan's
newly
independent
neighbor South
Sudan spoke in
the open
meeting.
Later
it made
sense: Sudan's
Permanent
Representative
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman
used part of
his long
speech to
accuse South
Sudan of
sheltering the
Justice and
Equality
Movement
rebels and
"seventy nine
four by
four"
technicals.
Afterward
Inner
City Press
asked South
Sudan's
representative
David Choat
about the
charge and he
denied it,
saying that
Security
Council
members too
know it is not
true. But the
Council went
behind closed
doors after
the three
speeches.
Thus,
after
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman said
that JEM had
been supported
by
Gaddafi and
left Libya
after the
regime fell,
there was no
public
response from
any Council
member about
International
Criminal Court
indictee Omar
al Bashir's
recent trip to
Libya.
Libya's
new
leaders'
ambivalent
relationship
with the ICC
seems to a
topic on
which loud ICC
supporters
like France do
not want to
speak.
Inner
City Press
asked David
Choat about
South Sudan's
oil dispute
with Khartoum.
"This is not
the forum for
oil," he said.
While
Choat kept
his speech
short,
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman went
long, even
stopping to
criticize a
"Secretariat
official" for
having a
"side
conversation"
and not
listening to
him. Afterward
a
range of
attendees said
the jibe was
directed at
the director
of
Security
Council
Affairs,
Movses
Abelian.
A person close
to the
incident said
that this
month's
Council
president had,
as frequently
happens, asked
the head of
Security
Council
Affairs and
his staff a
question, and
was getting an
answer.
(c) UN Photo
In empty SC,
Abelian
confers with
PR of Gabon in
June: Jan 13
AU presser
forthcoming
Two
Council
Permanent
Representatives
told Inner
City Press
that
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman's
criticism was
"ridiculous."
With the
number of
diplomats
using their
BlackBerries
-- if they
work --
during Council
meetings, to
call anyone
out is
decidedly bad
form.
But as
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman made,
make peace or
be punished.
Watch this
site.
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