At
UN,
Statement on
Sudan Now
"Needs
Adjustment,"
China Says,
US Position
UNclear?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 27, updated
-- As tension
mount between
Sudan and
South Sudan,
the US on
Monday
circulated a
press
statement to
other Security
Council
members,
ostensibly
directed at
both sides. If
no one
objected
before 4 pm,
the Press
Statement
would be read
out and
become
official.
As
as Inner City
Press
reported,
without
response from
the US Mission
admittedly
under a tight
deadline that
at least two
other
delegations
met, the
process on
the draft
statement was
extended to
Tuesday.
Overnight,
Sudan's Second
Vice President
Yusuf
announced that
the underlying
presidential
summit between
Omar al Bashir
and Salva Kiir
is being
cancelled.
Tuesday
morning in
front of the
Security
Council, while
nearly all
questions
concerned
Syria, a
Western
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press
there
should be no
need to revise
the statement
despite new
events.
Inner
City Press
asked China's
Permanent
Representative
Li Baodong
about the
draft
statement. He
told Inner
City Press
exclusively,
"we need to
discuss that.
We got a draft
yesterday.
Since then
there are new
developments,
we
need to adjust
that."
Will
China's
proposed
"adjustments"
be accepted by
the US?
Attempt to
ask diplomats
of the US
Mission have
proved
fruitless so
far.
In front of
the General
Assembly on
Monday before
publication of
yesterday's
story, Inner
City Press
asked US
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Rosemary
DiCarlo about
the delay of
the Sudan
statement. She
was polite but
said that only
Jeff could
answer. But
Jeffrey
DeLaurentis
does not
answer. And,
the question
arose, where
is Susan Rice,
who generally
does
answer?
Perhaps
the US,
after it said
time was of
the essence,
didn't want to
go public with
the delay?
Already,
some say,
after the
closed door
briefing of
the Council by
Thabo Mbeki,
the
Council will
only pass
statements
that equally
blame Sudan
and South
Sudan, which
is not the
position of
most US-based
Sudan
activists or,
one thought,
the Obama
administration.
But
there was
Obama's envoy
to Darfur Dane
Smith, quoted
in Sudan state
media
telling the
Justice &
Equality
Movement not
to try to
regime
change. So
according to
Obama, regime
change in
Libya good,
Syria
would be good,
but not in
Sudan, whose
President and
Defense
Minister
have been
indicted for
genocide and
war crimes by
the
International
Criminal
Court?
Someone
should
explain all
this, but we
have no answer
from the US
Mission to the
UN. Watch this
site.
, 
