UNITED NATIONS, August 2 -- In Darfur, the embattled UN - African Union mission UNAMID has been instructed to only travel, including on the roads of Nyala, after giving prior notice to the government, which has also said it will search UNAMID personnel's bags in airports.
Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky about these new Sudanese government rules. “If implemented, then these restrictions on movement would not be consistent with the Status of Forces Agreement,” Nesirky replied in what seemed a prepared statement. Video here, from Minute 33:38.
Does that mean that UNAMID is resisting the restrictions, in a way it did not resist the orders to only use its helicopters on 48 hours notice, even to defend its peacekeepers? “We're working with the local authorities in South Sudan,” Nesirky said.
Inner City Press last week repeatedly asked if and when the UN would disclose what it knows about who took hostage the Russian pilot, and beat his passengers. On July 30, Inner City Press was told that the pilot, already then released, would rest before being interviewed as to who had taken him.
But when on August 2 Inner City Press asked the UN, which has presumably now interviewed the pilot, to say whether as reported it was pro-government militia, Janjaweed, who were responsible for the incident, Nesirky said the UN still does not know.
Asked if the UN and its Department of Peacekeeping Operations has begun work toward the Security Council required (and compromised) “full understanding of the facts” behind the deaths and violence in the Kalma camp last week, Nesirky said that DPKO chief Alain Le Roy will conduct a previously scheduled briefing for the Press on August 4.
Nesirky then read a prepared that the situation in Kalma has “improved but remains tense,” and that deputy joint Special Representative Mohamed Younis visited Nyala and spoke with the Wali of South Darfur sheiks and UNAMID staff. Nesirky did not fully confirm until after the briefing that three UNAMID peacekeepers, from Sierra Leone, while accompanying Younis died in a car crash. RIP.
We will have more about the roads of Nyala. Watch this site.
