UNITED NATIONS, September 1 -- The UN Mission in Sudan rebuffs human rights protection outside of normal business hours, and runs its press releases by Khartoum's “humanitarian affairs” minister, Inner City Press has been told by sources. The UN in New York has neither confirmed nor denied, despite more than 24 hours lead time
On August 31, Inner City Press asked the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, Martin Nesirky, the following:
Inner City Press: On Sudan, I wanted to ask two things about UNMIS, actually. So they’re about South Sudan and/or Khartoum. I’ve been told that in two recent incidents, for example there was the Girifna activist, the youth activists that were arrested by the Government, for being pro-democracy. That, in fact, they called the UN. They called UNMIS and asked for to be, when they were surrounded by the national NISS, and were told that UNMIS would only respond during normal office hours and in turn were arrested.
In another incident, a Darfuri student was in the morgue, having been, it’s alleged, tortured to death. The UN was told to come to the morgue and witness this, and was told it was Friday and a holiday and would not come. So, I’m just wondering, does UNMIS have a policy of not responding to even alleged torture deaths on weekends? And why is it that Mr. [Haile] Menkerios, as much of the press corps in Khartoum and Juba are complaining, has only had a single press conference and says there’s no need to, actually. I mean that’s a separate one. People there are unable to get an answer. I guess if you can get an answer from UNMIS, if it’s true they didn’t respond and, if they didn’t, why they didn’t respond to these two very troubling human rights incidents.
Spokesperson Nesirky: I think colleagues have heard this just as I have and I’m sure we’ll be contacting UNMIS to see what kind of response there is and to what extent there is anything to these reports and, if so, what that response is.
Twenty four hours later -- and not over a weekend, in either New York or Khartoum -- the UN had provided no response. (Inner City Press had previously asked about the Girifna activists, without yet knowing the full extent of the UN's inaction.) So at the September 1 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Nesirky's acting deputy Farhan Haq about the previous day's questions, as well as a new outrage from yet another source, that UN Humanitarian Coordinator Georg Charpentier now vets his press releases with Sudan's Humanitarian Affairs minister before releasing, late and newsless.Video here, from Minute 15:46.
Haq said he forwarded this question to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which is in between departed chief John Holmes and his successor, Baroness Valerie Amos. Inner City Press went to Haq's office to ask for some belated answer to the previous day's UNMIS questions. Minutes later, Inner City Press received this (non) response, or implicit confirmation:
Subject: Your question on human rights and the UN Mission in Sudan
Date: Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 1:15 PM
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Regarding your question at the 31 August noon briefing:
We can assure you that the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) works seven days a week.
On the question of human rights abuses, UNMIS takes the issue very seriously. We have no further comment at this time on specific cases.
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