By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/darfur2sla030510.html
UNITED NATIONS, March 5 -- After days of the UN saying it had no access to Jebel Marra in Darfur, and could not confirm the fighting there, late Friday top UN peacekeeper Alain Le Roy told Inner City Press that yes, we confirm confirm fighting between the SLA Abdul Wahid and the government.
Inner City Press asked for the response of the UN, which praised the deal between Khartoum and JEM, to JEM's later statement that it would renounce the deal if similar offers were made to other Darfur rebel groups. Video here, from Minute 3:19. Le Roy sputtered that JEM "has not repudiated the framework agreement."
Le Roy claimed that the Security Council was clear that "no one will have exclusivity of signing anything with the Sudanese authority." But who from the UN spoke with JEM's Khalil Ibrahim?
Inner City Press also asked Le Roy about his agreement with Chad's Idriss Deby, that the UN mission can remain only two more months and then must start leaving. How would this be possible, in the rainy season which begins in May? It will be difficult, Le Roy said. Video here, from Minute 11:40.
Also on Chad, Inner City Press asked about Deby's anger at those who say he did not want any observers to his upcoming election. Le Roy quickly responded that elections observations were not in MINURCAT's mandate. Even in the most egregious cases?
So it's like the UN's UNAMA in Afghanistan, snarked one cynic.
A Sudanese Mission source later told Inner City Press that the backdrop to Chad's President Deby ordering the UN to start leaving was his accusation that the MINURCAT mission was "spying." This was said with a certain glee.
