By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 26 -- Amid military build-ups on the Sudan - South Sudan border as the two country's leaders prepare for a summit in Juba, the US Mission to the UN midday on Monday told other Security Council members they would draft and circulate a Council Press Statement directed at both sides. If no one objected before 4 pm, the Press Statement would be read out and become official.
But Monday afternoon Inner City Press heard from several Council members -- not from the US, despite a formal question being asked -- that silence was broken on the statement, and an extension requested until Tuesday. Perhaps the US, after it said time was of the essence, didn't want to go public with the delay?
Already, some say, after the closed door briefing of the Council by Thabo Mbeki, the Council will only pass statements that equally blame Sudan and South Sudan, which is not the position of most US-based Sudan activists or, one thought, the Obama administration.
But there was Obama's envoy to Darfur Dane Smith, telling the Justice & Equality Movement not to try to regime change. So according to Obama, regime change in Libya good, Syria would be good, but not in Sudan, whose President and Defense Minister have been indicted for genocide and war crimes by the International Criminal Court?
Someone should explain this, but we have no answer from the US Mission to the UN. Watch this site.
