At
UN, Sudan Is
Urged Not
Demanded to
Accept Map, in
France's Swan
Song
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 31 --
Twenty-three
days after
Thabo Mbeki
briefed the
UN Security
Council on
agreements
between Sudan
and South
Sudan, the
Council on
Friday
afternoon
belatedly
adopted a
Presidential
Statement on
the topic.
Inner
City Press
asked outgoing
President of
the Council
Gerard Araud
about
one of the
changes, from
an August 14
draft which
"demanded"
that Sudan
"fully &
unconditionally"
accept Mbeki
map,
watered down
to "strongly
urge to
accept."
Araud
said "every
comma" was
fought over,
reflecting
divisions in
the Council,
and that a
shorter
statement
should have
been adopted
much earlier.
Before
the
meeting,
another
Permanent
Representative
expressed
concern to
Inner City
Press that
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon either
met or
held a
plausible
deniability
"handshake"
with Sudan's
president Omar
al Bashir,
who is
indicted by
the
International
Criminal Court
for genocide.
He indicated
that "Ban has
told us
how he tried
to avoid"
contact with
Bashir.
Not hard
enough: click
here for
Inner City
Press' story
earlier today.
Araud
said this
might be his
last
presidency. He
defended
what's been
cited
as failures of
his month -- click here
for Inner City
Press' review
-- on Mali and
Cote d'Ivoire,
blaming the
first on
ECOWAS and
saying
that latter
will be
addressed
later.
Still it was
appreciated:
call
and response
is always
better than
stonewalling.
Inner City
Press asked if
any progress
on a UN
Special Envoy
on the Sahel.
Araud said to
look for it at
the High Level
meeting on the
Sahel in late
September.
Watch this
site.
, 
