By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, August 5,updated -- As the delay associated with the death of three peacekeepers in Abyei garners more interest, the UN on Friday afternoon reversed its position of hours earlier, and admitted that it asked Sudan if it could medevac the injured peacekeepers using a helicopter from Wau in South Sudan, and that Sudan said no, "that is a different country."
This is what UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant told Inner City Press on Thursday evening, but which Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky denied Friday at noon, saying that the request had been to fly the helicopter from Kadugli in Sudan.
If Khartoum blocked a medical flight entirely within Sudan it would be one thing; for them to deny access to a helicopter from a country which just broken away, while heartless, is not unexpected.
So the question is, why did the UN not plan for it, not admit it when it happened, and try to dissemble about it even after the cat was out of the bag, due to the UK Ambassador's commendable candor?
And what ensures that if a UN peacekeeper is injured today in Abyei, they too might not bleed out due to a lack of planning? Watch this site.
Note: The Council meetings on August 11 about Sudan -- but outgoing DPKO chief Alain Le Roy's last day is August 10. So once again at the UN: no accountability?
Footnote: Earlier this year when the Security Council traveled to Sudan, they intended to go to Abyei. But even before fighting flared up, there was controversy about whether they would fly in via Wau in the South, which has a shorter runway, or Kadugli, where ICC-indicted Southern Kordofan government Ahmed Haroun might greet them on the tarmac. Ultimately they didn't go: but they were on notice of the problems of air travel to and from Abyei. We will continue on this.