By Matthew Russell Lee
KAMPALA, October 6 -- With US Ambassador Susan Rice and the rest of the UN Security Council heading to Sudan later today, the US Mission to the UN has argued to Inner City Press that it is wrong to say the US has become less vocal about the killing of civilians in Darfur.
Many beyond Inner City Press have asserted that US policy, as symbolized by envoy Scott Gration, has prioritized the North - South conflict over that in Darfur.
But the US Mission, in an October 5 email from New York received by Inner City Press in Uganda, has pointed to quotes by Susan Rice, Gration, Samantha Power and even President Barack Obama for the proposition that it is “just wrong” to say the US has pulled back.
We will run below the quotes the US Mission compiled. This more than meets the Mission's request for “prominence” in addressing this issue. But consider:
In early August, when there were killings in the Kalma Camp in Darfur, it was France and not the US which asked for a Council meeting.
Later, when Inner City Press obtained documents showing the immanent turn over of five supporters of rebel leader Abdel Wahid Nur from the Kalma Camp to the Omar al Bashir government and handed them to representatives of a number of Security Council members including the US, it was another Permanent Member which responded it was actively looking into the documents, and another member which said the context of the impending turn over troubled them. From the US, no response.
Even in President Obama's speech in the UN high level meeting on Sudan on September 24, it was not only Inner City Press which noticed that Obama did not mention Bashir, or the International Criminal Court which has indicted him for war crimes and genocide -- the Organization of the Islamic Conference later cited Obama's failure to mention the ICC as support for its position that Bashir should not have been indicted at all.
We note that the Obama Administration fought to make the UN's September 24 meeting on Sudan open to the press and public.
Susan Rice & unidentified aid arrive in Entebbe on Oct 6, response on turn over of Kalma 5 documents not shown (c) MRLee
Also noted: Obama in his speech to the General Debate (but not on MDGs) did not even mention Sudan.
The perception of the Obama Administration as surprisingly unclear on war crimes is shared by, among others, many in the Tamil diaspora, who expressed shock at Susan Rice's statement taking a wait and see approach to the self - serving self - investigation announced by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as a replacement for a UN panel of experts into accountability in Sri Lanka.
Others have noted the US' silence on Myanmar, then seeming joining of others' call for an international inquiry into war crimes, then a stepping away from that position.
While we are always willing to listen to and publicize responses to analysis, the point here is that questions about the Obama Administration's and Susan Rice's position on war crimes and Omar al Bashir, and even Darfur, extend far beyond Inner City Press. The answer may be not better public image management, but different actions. We'll see. Watch this site.
From the US Mission to the UN:Matt:
We saw your recent blog post/story which included this erroneous line: “Most troubling is the failure not only of the UN but now also the US to speak out about the rising rate of death in Darfur.”
In the interest of accuracy, we are sending you (below) a collection of just some of the recent statements by senior US officials (including the President of the United States) about the violence in Darfur.
We look forward to your immediate and visible correction of your significant mistake.
(Not pictured here, Matt Lee missing very basic and easily reportable facts.)
Thanks, as always,
Susan Rice, Oct 5: A top US envoy expressed concern Tuesday about renewed violence in Darfur as the UN Security Council powers headed to Sudan to maintain pressure over a referendum which could lead to the country's break-up.
"With less than 100 days until the vote, our visit comes at a crucial time for Sudan," said US ambassador Susan Rice, who highlighted the new fears about events in Darfur, in western Sudan.
"We will push for peaceful, on-time referenda that reflect the will of the people of South Sudan and Abyei, and we will visit Darfur to assess the humanitarian situation and the plight of civilians in the wake of a disturbing uptick in violence," she said.
President Obama, Sept 24:“Despite some recent progress, preparations for the referenda are still behind schedule. Now, the vote is only a little more than a hundred days away. And tragically, as has already been referred to, a recent spike in violence in Darfur has cost the lives of hundreds of more people.”
Samantha Power, Sept 24: Samantha Power is a senior advisor to President Obama. She told reporters this week during a telephone briefing that Mr. Obama's main message to the Sudan meeting will be the need to rapidly implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement - or CPA - which calls for the North-South vote and another one on the same day by the people of the Abyei region.
"So the number one message is that these referenda must go off on time; that they must be peaceful; and they must reflect the will of the people of South Sudan," she said.
Power says President Obama would also speak about the recent uptick in violence in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Ambassador Rice, Sept 15: if in fact the government upholds its commitments as it says it will, then that will benefit the people of Sudan, and will benefit our bilateral relations-- provided that equal progress is also made on Darfur, where we remain very concerned about the security situation there.
Scott Gration, Sept 15: We’re also very concerned about some of the things that we’ve seen recently that are destabilizing. There have been some assassinations. There have been fighting between those who are pro-Doha and those who are against Doha. And we’re very concerned in getting to the bottom of these and mitigating those tensions.
So we are very involved in Darfur, we will continue to be involved in Darfur, and we don’t see a solution in Sudan until the Darfur issues are resolved, and we’re talking there about increased stability, we’re talking about an environment that people voluntarily can go to places that they want to settle, we’re talking about access for UNAMID, and we’re talking accountability, justice, and ability for people to have their wrongs righted in a way that they respect and the way they want.
This email is UNCLASSIFIED.
