By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 8 -- Outside El Fasher in Darfur, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Valerie Amos waited on November 7 to speak with internally displaced people in the Al-Salam IDP camp.
But given the UN's and Security Council members' failure to follow up on Sudan's arrest and harassment in Darfur following the UN Security Council's visit a month ago, Al-Salam leaders reportedly did not meet with Amos. If the UN can't or won't protect witnesses, why would people take the chance to speak with the UN?
Since returning from the Council trip, Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the UN and Security Council members, including this month's president Mark Lyall Grant of the UK, what is being done to investigate and act on the harassment and arrests that followed the visit to Abu Shouk camp on October 8.
Despite the passage of a month, and the request that UN Peacekeeping and its mission in Darfur, UNAMID, led by Ibrahim Gambari, confirm or deny that those arrested after the visit did not meet or plan the meeting with Council members, nothing has been done.
Why then is the UN surprised by this report:
“On Sunday at Camp al-Salam on the outskirts of El-Fasher, the capital of the western region of Darfur, elders scrapped a planned meeting with Amos without giving reasons for their decision. 'I hope that there is no fear,' Amos told reporters after the camp leaders failed to show up for their meeting.”
Why wouldn't there be fear?
Meanwhile, even when the UN does respond to questions about actions in Sudan, it is usually with platitudes, not investigation. On November 5 at the UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky:
Inner City Press: The SPLM [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement] is saying that… they have come out with an allegation that Southerners who live in the North are being told, in Government medical facilities, are being told they’ll only get medical treatment if they vote for unity. I wonder if it’s something… it’s in the Sudan Tribune and I am assuming elsewhere. I am wondering if that’s something… I guess that would be an UNMIS [United Nations Mission in Sudan] issue, or perhaps… whether the UN system is aware of that allegation, what they think of it, if it is true and what they are doing to find out if it is true?
Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, at the very least, if they are reading the Sudan Tribune like you, they will have seen the same reports and I would assume that they are doing so. We will need to check whether they have further information that was not in this Sudan Tribune. But, I don’t have that right now.
Inner City Press: Okay. No, no, I mean I am pretty sure they would be aware of this, I just wonder if this is the type of thing that they feel a duty to investigate to see if it’s true or to make some statement about.
Spokesperson Nesirky: As I say, let’s first establish what they know about it.
It sounds like a needed and too rare process, disclosure by the UN of what it knows about human rights violations. Three days later -- not broken by any weekend in Sudan -- the UN responded:
Subject: Your question on Sudan
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Date: Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 10:23 AM
In response to your question last Friday on reports that people who do not vote for unity in Sudan could be denied medical help, we have the following to say:
"We call on all the CPA parties to take steps to ensure a peaceful and inclusive referenda process, and in the time remaining, the Government of Sudan must demonstrate political will to ensure the credibility of the referendum."
But what about finding out if UNMIS has investigated the report, if it confirmed it, and what it will do about it? Watch this site.
