As
UN
Admits Transporting ICC Indictee Harun to Abyei, NGOs & US Have Yet
to
Speak
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 11 -- The UN Mission in Sudan transported and
assisted International Criminal Court indictee Ahmed Harun, UN
spokesman Martin Nesirky confirmed to Inner City Press on Tuesday,
because the UN finds Harun helpful in dealing with violence in Abyei.
Nesirky implied that the UN will continue to transport
Harun, saying that the UN "will continue to provide necessary support
to key players." Video
here,
from Minute 13:48.
Inner
City Press
asked why the UN transported Harun, not only in light of his ICC
indictment for war crimes in Darfur, but also of the capacities
of
the Sudanese Air Force, which has recently conducted bombing raids
in
and near Southern Sudan.
If
the Sudanese
Air Force can bomb, Inner City Press asked, why can't it fly Harun to
Abyei? Nesirky did not answer this question. Nor would he tell Inner
City Press if UNMIS, led by Haile Menkerios, had checked with UN
Headquarters' Office of Legal Affairs or Ban Ki-moon before
transporting an indicted war criminal.
It
seems to some
that the Sudanese government of Omar al Bashir, who has also been
indicted by the ICC for genocide as well as war crimes, has no lack
of capacity to transport its official Harun, but instead wanted to
get the UN further involved in undercutting the war crimes
indictments.
Already,
Haile
Menkerios and his counterpart at the Mission in Darfur UNAMID Ibrahim
Gambari attended the inauguration of Omar al Bashir. Inner City Press
asked Nesirky, without answer, if the UN would provide transport and
assistance to other ICC indictees, including Joseph Kony of the the
Lord's Resistance Army, widely thought to be in South Darfur.
UN Security Council in Sudan w/ Gambari, 10/10 (c)MRLee
Earlier
on
January 11, Inner City Press asked representatives of
non-governmental organizations active on Sudan about the UN's
transport of ICC indictee Harun. David Abramowitz, the Director of
Policy and Government Relations of the group Humanity United, said
that he wasn't aware of the reports of Harun being transported, "I have
not seen that report."
Nor
has the US
administration, including its Mission at the UN, yet spoken on the
matter. Some wonder whether they were consulted, even whether, in
light of the offer to delink Darfur from the offer to remove some
sanctions on Sudan in exchange for the South Sudan referendum, if the
US agreed.
Sam
Bell, the
Executive Director of the Genocide Intervention Network / Save Darfur
Coalition, said he hadn't
seen the report confirmed, but either way
it did not send a good message to the people of Darfur, where Harun
was indicted for war crimes: "already Darfuri are suspicious of UNAMID
and UN personnel."
In
fact, Harun was
indicted for working with and organizing the type of nomadic tribes
which are accused of the killings in Abyei, and now in South Kordofan
state as well.
Nesirky
told Inner City Press that "Governor Harun was critical" to bringing
the Miseriya tribes together. Video
here,
from Minute 15:58.
So
in this view,
it is not only a matter of the fox guarding the hen house: the UN has
taken to transporting the fox to the hen house. Where will there be
accountability? Watch this site.
* * *
On
Sudan,
Questions
of Expulsion of Darfur Rebels & Ocampo on
Bashir's Billions
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January
6 -- As the UN and Security Council engage in happy
talk about the South Sudan referendum, events in
Darfur get worse and
worse.
On January 6 Inner City Press put questions to the UN
Permanent Representatives of the US and Sudan, and to the UN itself. On
background, a number of Council sources said that the African
Union - UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur is not pushing hard enough for
access to civilians in harm's way. But the focus is on the
referendum.
Inner
City
Press
asked US Ambassador Susan Rice:
Inner
City
Press:
this agreement by Salva Kiir to eject or stop the rebel
groups from Darfur from being in South Sudan. Is it a positive thing?
Does it help resolve things in Darfur, the idea that they wouldn't
have to go back? It was announced by Salva Kiir.
Ambassador
Rice:
Our
view has long been that it's vitally important that both
parties to the CPA refrain from, in any way, direct or indirectly
supporting rebel or proxy activity against the other. And so we urged
that, to the extent that that has been the case, that it cease.
But
if the fighting
that's hurting civilians is by the government against the rebels, how
is pushing the rebels back into Darfur going to make things better?
Inner City Press asked the UN:
Inner
City
Press:
yesterday during a background briefing, a senior [UN]
official said — about Sudan — said of Sudan that there had been,
during the fighting in Khor Abeche in Darfur, that a Tanzanian
battalion had fed IDPs [internally displaced persons] with their own
rations and had been unable to be re-supplied due to Government
restrictions on the re-supplying, it seemed to be, of the
peacekeepers. Can you confirm that there was a time during that
fighting that even the UN peacekeepers were unable to get their
supplies in? And if so, was that ever said publicly, and — it
seems like in other countries, they complained when its peacekeepers
were being in any way blockaded. Did that take place in Khor Abeche,
as it seemed to be said yesterday?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky:
Let me find out.
But
seven hours
later there was no answer. Inner City Press asked Sudan's Permanent
Representative about Khor Abeche, if Sudan had blocked resupply of
peacekeepers. The Sudanese Ambassador again offered praise for
UNAMID, then said that when there is fighting, movement is restricted
for the peacekeepers' own good.
While top UN peaceekeeper Alain Le Roy had told the press that he
requested a boost in UN troop levels but Sudan would not agree, Sudan's
Ambassador said he was in a meeting with Le Roy on January 5 and Le Roy
made no such request. The UN should clarify this.
UN's Ban & Sudan's Ambassador, Khor Abeche
answer not shown
Inner
City
Press
asked asked Sudan's Ambassador about the allegations by International
Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo that Omar al Bashir
spirited $9 billion out of the country. He replied it was
ridiculous, that Lloyds had immediately denied it.
(As
Inner City
Press reported at the time, Lloyds was in the news for violating
sanctions in Sudan and elsewhere.)
Inner
City
Press
asked about the meeting on this topic between Ocampo and Susan Rice
and Alejandro Wolff at the US Mission to the UN, memorialized in a
Wikileaked cable. (Ambassador Rice has twice said she doesn't recall
the meeting.) Sudan's Ambassador said this showed that Ocampo was
“taking his orders” from sources other than the ICC. We will have
more on this.
, 
