By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 18 -- Sudan, or at least part of Sudan, was the hot topic when top UN peacekeepers Alain Le Roy and Susana Malcorra met Monday afternoon with the Non-Aligned Movement Working Group on Peacekeeping.
In the closed door meeting, Le Roy described contingency plans based on what happens with the South Sudan referendum. If South Sudan becomes independent -- by vote or unilaterally, it seems -- the UN plans to reconfigure in Juba and add “peacebuilding” to its work.
While Le Roy said that the South Sudan and Abyei referendums should both be done on January 9, Abyei in particular seems off track for that deadline.
If, as seems unlikely, unity is chosen, the UN will try to keep civil peace. Given the UN peacekeepers often stay in their base, in the Congo and in Darfur, while civilians are attacked, it is not clear what the UN would do in the case of war.
The sources were amazed at how little -- “nothing,” said one -- Le Roy and Malcorra spoke of the UN - African Union Mission in Darfur, UNAMID. “This is why Gambari is able to build his empire,” one of the sources marveled. “Even DPKO doesn't oversee him.”
This silence on Darfur, even from UN Peacekeeping, takes place as violence escalates, with the village of Soro destroyed and fighting spreading throughout Jebel Marra.
Le Roy spoke about the upcoming election in Cote d'Ivoire, and said that the Mission in Timor Leste might soon end.
While the Polisario Front said it was meeting with Le Roy at 12:15 on Monday, the topic of Western Sahara was another vast emptiness in the UN Peacekeeping briefings. Whatever happened to the protection of civilians? Watch this site.
