By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, February 12 -- Not only did the UN provide air transportation to Ahmed Haroun, indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur -- the UN also lied or misspoke about it, Inner City Press has found.
After first obtaining confirmation from the UN that it flew Haroun to a meeting in Abyei of nomadic tribes of the kind he organized in Darfur to burn villages down, Inner City Press repeatedly asked for the specifics of the flight, and if the UN had sought or received reimbursement from the Sudanese government (which, it must be noted, has its own air force which could have flown Haroun, just as it bombs Darfur and the border with Southern Sudan).
After first refusing to answer, the UN belated sent this answer:
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 2:17 PM
Subject: Your question on Ahmed Haroun
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com
In accordance with its mandate, the Mission provides the necessary support to those key players in their pursuit to find a peaceful solution. In this context, at the request of the Government and on a space available basis, UNMIS provides seats on its flights to Government officials on official business related to the peace process, without any financial implications to the Government and at no additional operational costs to the mission.
But on February 11 when Inner City Press finally had an opportunity to see and ask questions of the chief of the UN Mission in Sudan Haile Menkerios, he answered that there was no regular flights between Southern Kordofan State and Abyei, and that the UN had flown Haroun by special helicopter.
Menkerios told Inner City Press, “There is no direct flight to Abyei. We flew him there in order to take him... We flew him by helicopter to Abyei because there is no flight.”
That is to say, the answer provided by the UN in New York was false, apparently intentionally so, when it said “at no additional operational costs to the mission” and “on a space available basis.” There was only “space available” for ICC indictee Haroun because the UN made a special flight, which cannot have been “at no additional operational costs to the mission.”
While some argue, as Menkerios did on February 11, that it is a good or necessary trade off to provide transport and legitimacy to an indicted war criminal if it might forestall violence threatened (even if by the indictee himself), it seems clear that a public organization like the UN should at least be transparent about it.
The context here is that, apparently in exchange for the government of Omar al Bashir allowing the Southern Sudan referendum, the UN has stayed quiet as things have gotten worse for civilians in Darfur, where Haroun is accused of committing war crimes.
The UN has yet to answer if Menkerios checked with top UN lawyer Patricia O'Brien (who has refused to take questions from the Press) or with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon himself.
Note: ever since the Office of the Spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon provide the February 1 answer above, Inner City Press has repeatedly posed this follow up question in writing:
“On your answer that Ahmed Haroun, indicted by the ICC for war crimes in Darfur, flew on a pre-existing UN flight, in light of footage from interview in South Kordofan which Haroun arranged with UN plane on camera behind him, please state who else was on the flight with him, how frequent UN flights between Abyei and South Kordofan are and what size aircrafts are used.”
Other than Menkerios on February 12, there has been not answer from the UN. Watch this site.
