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As UN Council Heads to Africa,
Justice in Confidential Meetings, Impunity Not Mentioned
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, May 30 -- As the UN Security Council members set off to six
countries in Africa, questions have been raised about the place on
their agenda
of justice, as well as of transparency. UK Ambassador John Sawers
briefed the media
about the three days the delegation will spend in Sudan, in Khartoum,
Juba and
Darfur. Inner City Press asked if the issue of the two International
Criminal
Court indictees, Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb, will be raised to
President Al
Bashir. Ambassador Sawers replied that "of course our conversations
with
all the various leaders that we meet will be confidential and we'll
decide at
the time what to say to the press afterwards." Video here,
from Minute 26:34.
Rather than answer the question directly, he went on
to cite the
Council's terms of reference for the trip, which he said include
underlining
the importance of compliance with all previous Security Council
resolutions,
the rules of law and due process. He did not mention impunity.
Four Ambassadors, leading 1a members to six
countries, ten days: confidential conversations not shown
Inner City Press asked Ambassador Michel Kafando of
Burkina Faso
whether, during the Cote d'Ivoire leg of the trip, the recently-raised
issue of
sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers will be pursued with
the UN
Mission's senior leadership. Ambassador Kafando said, "These are
important
issues that we cannot just gloss over," and said they would be raised
even
to the leadership of the country, including president Laurent Gbagbo.
He went
on to note that the Security Council is only supporting
the political process, mediated by the president of
Burkina.
Less restrained was French Ambassador Jean-Maurice
Ripert, who along
about the four has full charge of two separate legs of the trip,
Democratic
Republic of the Congo and Chad, in connection with which he twice
mentioned the
Central African Republic. He did not say whether in Chad there will be
any
meetings with opposition or human rights groups.
While South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo was
upbeat about the
talks in Djibouti between Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and
some of
the opposition, Inner City Press' sources in Mogadishu, deemed to
dangerous for
a UN visit, indicate that the portion of the Alliance for the
Re-liberation of
Somalia that is meeting with the TFG has been losing support and
credibility,
that splits in the ARS are developing despite the positive spin
deployed by the
UN. Still available online is
this expose, which raises
questions that the trip
should help answer. We'll see -- watch this site.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
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in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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