By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 7 – Sudan is the biggest or at least most frequent item on the agenda of the UN Security Council. Yet after more than two hours of consultations by the Council on Thursday about three separate Sudanese issues, there was no outcome, and no summary.
Inner City Press asked UK Deputy Permanent Representative Philip Parham if there was any progress in getting aid into Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. He said no, “but we keep pushing.”
Inner City Press asked a UN official present what on the issue(s) is happening. “Nothing,” he said.
It seems that most of the Sudan and South Sudan issues are on hold, with the Council deferring or wanting to defer to the African Union. A pro-Juba source told Inner City Press, “the AU has to prove that its bite is at least somewhat similar to its bark.”
A non-Permanent Security Council member told Inner City Press that there might, at some later undefined date, be a Council press statement about the issues discussed Thursday morning, with the exception of Sudan's ongoing blocking or “blacklisting” of UN sanctions finance expert Schbley.
But the Council couldn't even put out a press statement for the humanitarian pledging conference on Syria: will it on this?
While February's Council president Kim Sook of South Korea held an informative February 4 press conference about the month's program of work, it is after such closed door consultations that a stakeout by the Council presidency is particularly useful. This was raised at the February 4 briefing by the Free UN Coalition for Access, as a request for stakeouts.
Perhaps one will be combined with the afternoon's Yemen consultations.
Repeating a question it asked at the day's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud about the Ansar Al-Dine rebels from Mali been seen in Darfur. “I heard the rumor,” Araud said.
At the noon briefing, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky answered Inner City Press that there are reports and rumors both ways, that the Malian rebels are there and that they are not, and the UNAMID peacekeeping mission has been unable to verify either.
UNAMID spends more than $1 billion a year, and any flight of rebels from Mali into Sudan would clearly impact on international peace and security. What is UNAMID and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations doing? Watch this site.
