By Matthew Russell Lee
KHARTOUM, October 9 -- Having avoided meeting in Sudan with President Omar al Bashir, indicted for genocide and war crimes, the UN Security Council on Saturday morning sat for a speech by Bashir's Foreign Minister Ali Karti.
Mere blocks from a loud demonstration opposing the secession of South Sudan and Abyei, Karti told the Council that some in the South, including by implication Salva Kiir, are violating the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
Karti's long remarks strongly implied that a referendum in Abyei will not take place by January 9 -- a result all the more likely due to the reported partial breakdown of the talks about Abyei in Addis Ababa.
On Darfur, Karti took a hard line: no negotiations with preconditions. Both Abdel Wahid Nur and Khalil Ibrahim of the Justice and Equality Movement have been calling for the UN to better ensure the protection of civilians in Darfur before they'd negotiate with Bashir in Doha.
Meanwhile the Sudanese Army continues attacking and bombing, with the UN not going to the site of the attacks even to count, much less try to save, bodies.
The UN's and African Union's Joint Special Representative in Darfur Ibrahim Gambari, who flew with the Security Council from El Fasher to Khartoum on Friday afternoon, has prepared a letter and attachment to Karti, to “finalize” the turn over of five supporters of Abdel Wahid Nur to the government, in exchange for a promise from Bashir they won't be executed.
Anti-secession rostrum Oct 9, UN Council not seen (c) MRLee
After Karti spoke, UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant gave a response, largely repeating the terms of reference of the UN Council's visit, which he has emphasized do not include the turn over of the Kalma Five, nor apparently any oversight of Ibrahim Gambari.
Once Lyall Grant was finished, the press corps was told to leave. A scheduled lunch with the new UNMIS communications chief was canceled so that the reporters could go and file stories. The UN vehicle went out of its way to avoid the area of the demonstration, quite near the ministry of foreign affairs. Instead they drove by UNMIS' old site near the Nile.
One reporter said that except for some references to God, Karti's speech had been the better one. But what about protection of civilians? Watch this site.
