As
Kiir
Ignores UN's
Ban on Heglig,
Belated
Statement,
Sudan
Retaliation?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 12 --
After the UN
Security
Council belatedly
adopted
a Presidential
Statement
calling on
South Sudan to
withdraw from
Heglig,
and for Sudan
to stop aerial
bombing, Inner
City Press
asked
Sudan's
Permanent
Representative
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman three
questions.
What
about the
bombing of
Bentui, which
the UN told
Inner City
Press its
Mission in
South Sudan
could, as is
rare, confirm?
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman
on and off
camera called
this "a
fiction." He
said that now
that the
Council had
ordered the
SPLA out, if
they do not
leave there
will be
retaliation
"deep within
South Sudan."
The
Presidential
Statement, on
which Deputy
Permanent
Representatives
on the Council
met at 8 pm on
Wednesday
night, ends by
saying that
the Thabo
Mbeki
High Level
Panel and the
UN's Haile
Menkerios will
brief the
Council
in the coming
days. Inner
City Press
asked
Ambassador
Susan Rice
when this
might happen;
she said it is
being
arranged.
Some
Council
members were
struck at how
"assertive"
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman was.
"This is it,"
a Council
member told
Inner City
Press. "This
is Sudan's big
oil field.
They have to
fight back,
and I think
they'll do it
fast."
Meanwhile
South
Sudan
President
Salva Kiir
said he
rejected "an
order" by
the UN's Ban
Ki-moon. "I
told him you
do not need to
order me
because I am
not under your
command. I am
a head of
state
accountable
to my people
and do not
have to be
ordered by
someone I do
not fall
under his
direct
command. I
will not
withdraw the
troops."
Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
to confirm
this, but
Nesirky
refused. It
does not look
good, to be
disregarded in
this way.
In
another slip
up by the UN,
Hilde
Johnson the
head of UNMISS
back on
March 15
told Inner
City Press
that while
South Sudan
has 10
helicopters,
it only has
pilots for two
of them.
Inner
City Press
asked Johnson
about reports
that the
government did
not use its
ten Mi-17
helicopters
and that the
ethnic make up
of the SPLA
led to a
failure to
protect the
Murle. Video
here, from
Minute 9:35.
Johnson said
the allegation
about the
non-use of
helicopter was
"incorrect" --
then admitted
that Sout
Sudan has only
two crews of
two pilots so
the flights
were
"limited."
Isn't that
like the
UN making
public that a
host country
has no or weak
air defenses?
Watch this
site.
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