Amid
Bombs
in S.
Kordofan, UN
Refuses to
Report, Rights
Up Front?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 20 --
Amid reports
of bombings in
South
Kordofan,
with the
government
bombing areas
held by the
SPLM-North
rebels, and
this group
shelling
regional
capital Kadugli,
Inner City
Press on
Wednesday
asked UN
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
what the UN
can say about
this,
including in
light of its
announced
polio
vaccination
plans.
Haq
said the UN
has no
presence in
Southern
Kordofan.
Inner
City Press
pointed out, as it
has before,
that UN
Peacekeeping's
Abyei mission
UNISFA has an
office in
Kadugli. There
is also
presumably a
wider UN
presence,
given the
statement that
the UN stands
ready to
vaccinate
throughout
Southern
Kordofan.
But
Haq insisted
that since the
UN
Peacekeeping
office in
Kadugli is
part
of UNISFA
whose area of
action is in
neighboring
Abyei, the UN
cannot
or will not
speak about
bombings in
Southern
Kordofan.
But
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
recently
described to
the General
Assembly his
new "Rights
Up Front" plan,
meant to
address
the failures
shown by UN
inaction in
Sri Lanka in
2009 when
40,000
civilians were
killed. It
claims the UN
will from now
on proactively
look out for
abuses and
report them.
So
why not in
Southern
Kordofan? What
does "Rights
Up Front"
mean?
Later
on Wednesday,
Haq's office
sent a
response not
from UN
Peacekeeping,
whose chief
Herve Ladsous
has been
allowed to
refuse all
Press
questions (video here, UK
coverage here),
but rather
from the
Office
for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs:
Subject:
Your
question on
South Kordofan
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not
Reply [at]
un.org
Date: Wed, Nov
20, 2013 at
3:30 PM
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
Regarding
your
question at
today’s Noon
briefing, we
have the
following from
the Office for
the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs:
“The
UN remains
deeply
concerned that
the polio
vaccination
campaign has
still not gone
ahead in
SPLM-N areas
of South
Kordofan and
Blue Nile.
Cessation of
hostilities is
essential
before the
vaccination
campaign
can go ahead.
The UN
continues to
call on the
parties to
cease
hostilities
and agree on
outstanding
logistical
issues to
allow this
purely
humanitarian
initiative to
go ahead.
The
UN
stands ready
to implement
the
vaccination
campaign at
short notice
as soon as the
parties agree
to a cessation
of
hostilities,
provide
security
assurances and
resolve
outstanding
logistical
questions.”
It
will be hard
to get
"security
assurances"
amid
government
bombing, and
rebel shelling
of Kadugli --
especially if
the UN
refuses to
look at or
report on
these, despite
Ban's supposed
"Rights
Up Front"
plan. Watch
this site.
, 
