By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 20 -- Omar al Bashir, indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court, was pictured greeted UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari at a ceremony for the wedding of Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal's daughter to Chad's president Idriss Deby.
The UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was repeatedly told Inner City Press that it only deals with ICC indictees as strictly necessary -- defending flying ICC indictee Ahmed Harun to and from Abyei, for example, on the grounds that it was a (failed) attempt to seek peace, as Inner City Press has reported.
But how can Gambari's greeting of Bashir at a wedding ceremony be deemed necessary?
Ironically, at the same time Ban's Spokesman Martin Nesirky was issuing a statement that Ban is deeply concerned about fighting on the Sudan and South Sudan border, for example in South Kordofan where UN peacekeepers from Egypt while civilians, including a UN contractors, were slaughtered right outside their base.
What can be the UN's defense of Gambari partying with Bashir? Or with Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal at Khartoum's Rotana hotel?