By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 17 -- A recently destroyed Darfur village, mentioned in a document of UN humanitarian coordinator Georg Charpentier but not to the Security Council during their visit last week, has been belatedly been acknowledged by the UN, in a prepared statement issued October 14.
After Inner City Press asked about the village, and the UN's silence, on October 11 and 12, on October 14 spokesman Martin Nesirky said “I have been asked a couple times about reports of attacks on a village in Jebel Marra. We have actually had reports of attacks on as many as six villages, including the one already named, Soro, as well as other villages in eastern Jebel Marra. These villages have not all been identified, as the information about the reported attacks is very sketchy. Confirmation is difficult, and there is no access in these areas.”
First, Inner City Press which traveled to Darfur last week can name other attacked villages: Dera and Jawa, whose residents fled to Sebi village, and Suni whose residents fled to Logi village.
Second, it is worth comparing the UN's October 14, 2010 statement “there is no access to these areas” to a job advertisement of the village of Soro in 2008, recruiting a coordinator to work in a health clinic there. (See below.)
That this now destroyed village was a health clinic is significant, as is the fact that the access that existed is now gone. Under the tenure of Georg Charpentier and UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari, so close to the regime of Omar al Bashir that he is about to turn over supporters of Fur rebel Abdel Wahid Nur to Bashir, there has been less and less protection of civilians in Darfur.
Rather, from Charpentier we have propaganda like press releases such as the one Nesirky read out on October 14:
“Georg Charpentier, is concerned by limitations on humanitarian access in view of intensified fighting in parts of Eastern Jebel Marra in Darfur. The Humanitarian Coordinator welcomed the recent access by the World Health Organization and UNICEF to some parts of Eastern Jebel Marra, and he calls upon parties to the conflict to facilitate humanitarian access on a regular basis. In this regard, he notes recent assurances from the Government of Sudan that access will be enlarged and sustained to allow for coverage of the national immunization campaign that started today.”
As the local press Radio Dabanga has noted, “Past press releases from Georg Charpentier have been screened by the Sudanese ministry of humanitarian affairs, a UN official who is senior to Charpentier has told the New York-based Inner City Press. Charpentier has denied this.”
Ambassadors including US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice have had this issue and now Soro raised to them, but so far at least publicly have done nothing.
The only reason Inner City Press learned of Charpentier's awareness of the destruction of villages in Jebel Marra was that he left a single copy a binder marked “Internal Use Only” on the Press bus in El Fasher on October 8.
The internal document was from “September 27 - October 4 2010” and referred to “Sora” with an A, and spoke of “intense ground fighting and aerial attacks in Eastern Jebel Marra over the past week, with several villages heavily affected, including Sora, which was completely burned down.”
But in the Dubai airport on the way back to New York, Inner City Press managed to ask two Permanent Five members of the Security Council if Charpentier had mentiones this village destruction to them. One said plainly, “no;” the other jumped ahead to use of the above quoted, whether the destruction was aerial (direct government) or ground (government supported janjawiid).
Once back in New York, Inner City Press asked on October 11
Inner City Press: as we left there, some, Mr. [Georg] Charpentier had provided a document that seems to indicate that, in the week before the Council’s visit, a village called Sora in eastern Jebel Marra was “entirely, completely burned down”. I know that Mr. Charpentier briefed the Council” members, but none of them on the way back seemed to… this wasn’t mentioned to them. I heard the very positive upbeat report you gave, what does UNAMID and Mr. Charpentier do when a village is entirely destroyed? Is it an important thing? Is it the kind of thing that they should brief the Council about?
Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Can you roll back and tell me again, because it is sort of confusing.
Inner City Press: Okay. Among documents that Mr. Charpentier provided at the end of the trip…
Spokesperson: To whom?
Inner City Press: He gave it into the Press bus, saying that this would just verify things that he’d said about things not being a problem in Jebel Marra. But deep in the document, it says that a village named Sora was completely burned down. It doesn’t say whether it was by ground fighting or an aerial attack. But if it’s aerial, it seems it would be the Government. None of the Security Council ambassadors on the way back had been aware of this or had been briefed on this. So, I guess my question, it’s a twofold one, factually it would be is it possible to discover from Mr. Charpentier, whose document this is, whether the village of Sora was destroyed from the air or by ground? And maybe some statement on why, in the briefing that he gave to the Council, this destruction was not raised?
Spokesperson: I am assuming you didn’t raise it with him yourself, because it was passed into the bus, and then you read it after the bus pulled away?
Inner City Press: I read it actually on the way back, yes, yes.
Spokesperson: Right. Okay, well let’s relay that back whence you just came.
At the next day's noon briefing, Nesirky provided update. So Inner City Press asked again:
Inner City Press: Did you get anything back on this issue of this village of Sora that was listed as being…?
Spokesperson Nesirky: I can assure you that something is in the works. I don’t have anything for you right now. Something is in the works.
It was two days later on October 14 with the above-quoted “thing in the works” was unveiled.
It was a prepared statement from Charpentier, read out by Nesirky, that did not disclose whether the villages were destroyed by aerial attack or ground fighting, but rather welcome access granted by the government of Omar al Bashir and, like Gambari, Bashir's assurances.
Here's from the Medecins du Monde job notice about Soro
General Coordinator
Médecins du Monde
Médecins du Monde is an international humanitarian organisation whose mission is : to provide medical care for the most vulnerable populations when they are faced with crisis or exclusion from society, the world over, including France
The rationale of the project is to participate to the improvement of the health care status and capacity of the population to maintain its own health status, in Deribat region. It will seek to:
- Reinforce primary health care services for the population, covered by six health care centres (Deribat, Jawa, Suni, Dera, Kebra, Soro) with the focus:
- of improving maternal and children health
- of improving the nutritional state of children under 5
- of preventing and treating common pathologies and those that could lead to epidemics
- Implement a global and integrated evaluation of population needs and a protection chapter on the question of human rights.
So there was a health care center in Soro. And now it's gone. Watch this site.
