By Matthew Russell Lee
UN PLANE TO DARFUR, October 7 -- Susan Rice spoke on the record to the Press on the back of the UN plane at the conclusion of her South Sudan leg of the UN Security Council's trip to Uganda and Sudan.
The US Permanent Representative to the UN recounted how Salva Kiir gave assurances that South Sudan will not make a unilateral declaration of independence. Rather, if Khartoum delays the nationwide referendum, South Sudan will hold its own referendum.
Inner City Press asked, what about the Southerns living in the North? Could they vote in this scenario? How many of them are there?
"No one knows," Susan Rice said, adding that the South had accepted the count of 500,000 Southerners in the North in the last election, but now Khartoum has boosted the figure to 2 to 3 million.
This echoed earlier on the record comments by UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant. Neither Ambassador would answer what is being done to prevent registration fraud.
Nor would Susan Rice answer what if anything the US plans to do about Sudan's nearly $40 billion in debt. She told Inner City Press that the US role on this is to support what the parties decide.
But how could the South accept the transfer of more than its fair share of the country's overall debt without an assurance that it would be forgiven?
Pressed, Susan Rice said that there are "legislative constraints" to forgiving Sudan's debt, and that even an independent South Sudan might not be "HIPC eligible." But isn't most of the debt non-IMF high interest rate loans?
Salva Kiir & Susan Rice, UDI & debt relief not shown
Finally, Inner City Press asked her about the accusation by South Sudan Minister of Internal Affairs Gier Chuang Aluang, in front of the Council and media, that the Omar al Bashir government is arming the Lord's Resistance Army and cattle rustlers. We've heard that before, she said, including in UN reports. But his allegations were specific. What will be done? Watch this site.
Footnotes: the reception Wednesday night involved not only Rice and the Council but also George Clooney, being followed around South Sudan by tele-journalist Ann Curry. Clooney joked that he wouldn't take a photo with a South Sudanese who was "too tall."
