By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 14 -- The credibility of the UN - African Union Mission in Darfur was questioned by numerous Security Council members on October 14, inside the Council's closed door consultations, sources tell Inner City Press.
UNAMID's failure to leave its bases to go to protect civilians killed in Tabarat Market was a trigger of concern. Less talked about but leading to further doubts about UNAMID is its chief Ibrahim Gambari's stealth (but exposed, by Inner City Press) negotiations to turn over five supports of Fur rebel Abdel Wahid Nur to the government of Omar al Bashir, indicted for war crimes and genocide.
Two Council members, Mexico and Lebanon, said that an issue dodged during the Council's trip to Sudan last week -- Bashir's indictment and sanctions -- must now be faced head on. To effectuate the trip, a “don't ask, don't tell” mechanism was arrived at. The Council didn't ask to meet with Bashir, nor he with them.
One Council member, China, defended UNAMID. Together with Russia, China emphasized that rebels should be pressured into joining the government's “Doha process.” Russia, however, also questioned whether under Gambari UNAMID isn't moving toward building too many and too permanent a series of buildings, as it is plans to be in Sudan for an extended period.
Inner City Press has several questions pending with UNAMID's two spokespeople; watch this site.
US Ambassador Susan Rice suggested in consultation some “brainstorming” about the idea of UN peacekeepers policing a buffer zone, or only buffer spots, between South Sudan and the rest of the country, sources tell Inner City Press.
Not addressed was the recent failure of UN peacekeepers to protect hundreds of woman from rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or of the UN in Sudan to protect civilians like those in Tabarat Market.
The Referendum Commission is moving toward rules for vote registration; the Council wasn't sure whether to publicly endorse these or not. There is a lot of posturing, as one participant put it to Inner City Press.
As to Darfur, the upshot appears to be that UNAMID under Ibrahim Gambari is building itself an empire without doing its job, which is to protect civilians. That Gambari is considering in essence extraditing rebel supporters from “his” territory to Bashir's, to which Gambari flies on his own Lear Jet better than that of most heads of state, only further call into question UNAMID's credibility. Watch this site.