Rice Says Can't Delink Kordofan from North-South Sudan, UN in Denial?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 -- On the deadline for compliance with the UN Security Council's most recent resolution on Sudan and South Sudan, the Council met behind closed doors. On the way in, US Ambassador Susan Rice told the press not to expect any "product" or further statement or enforcement action, at least that day.

When the session was over, Inner City Press asked about one or two paragraphs of the resolution:

Inner City Press: What about talks with SPLM-North? I'm sorry if you've addressed this, but Sudan has said that they don't they think the resolution can force them-they've said that no one can make them talk to SPLM-North about Southern Kordofan?

Ambassador Rice: Well, the resolution makes clear that this is part of the African Union Roadmap, and it is a requirement. The reality is that, as we all agree in there, it is impossible to separate what is happening from Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile from the larger conflict between North and South. And the North would be wise to return to the table with the SPLM-North, to allow humanitarian access, which was discussed in there as a matter of enormous urgency given the onslaught of the rainy season. And the North needs to know-and the SPLM-North needs to know-that they have obligations in this regard under the resolution.

Moments later, Inner City Press asked Sudanese diplomats about this statement, and the situation in Abyei. On the latter, they reiterated the position of minister Ali Karti that an administrative structure should be agreed to and be in place, and said that while South Sudan pulled back, they had "not gone back behind the 1/1/1956 border."

Inner City Press asked South Sudan's representative Francis Nazario about Abyei and he said that there could be no pre-conditions to leaving Abyei. Another representative said Sudan should be asked where they think the 1956 border is.

Meanwhile on Sudan the UN Secretariat is in denial -- or at least, is directly denying a press account that the government has told non-Sudanese NGOs to leave El Geneina. Inner City Press asked, then the UN e-mailed this answer:

Subject: Your question El Geneina (Sudan)
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Tue, May 15, 2012 at 1:05 PM
To: Matthew.Lee@innercitypress.com

On yesterday's question, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in El Geneina confirmed that no international NGO in El Geneina has received information asking them to leave the refugee camp there. There is one international NGO that is in the process of a planned scale-down.

We'll see. On May 16 Inner City Press asked about 30 reported arrests of civilians in South Darfur. Typically, the UN Secretariat had nothing. Watch this site.