By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 14 – The day before the UN Security Council adopted its resolution on the Sudan Sanctions Panel of Experts, Inner City Press published a leaked draft, including a paragraph “condemning the simulated attack by Sudanese army helicopters on a UNAMID patrol to which the Panel of Experts arms expert was attached.”
At the February 13 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked for more information on this “simulated attack by Sudanese army helicopters on a UNAMID patrol,” since a search of the press releases on the UNAMID mission's web site found no mention of it.
A day later, after the Council's vote, the UN sent the following to Inner City Press:
Subject: Your question on UNAMID
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 12:41 PM
To: Matthew [dot] Lee [at] innercitypress.com
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 12:41 PM
To: Matthew [dot] Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Regarding your question on a shooting incident last year in Darfur, the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur has the following to say:
On 26 September 2012, two Sudanese Armed Forces helicopters flew at low altitude over a UNAMID patrol that was returning from an assessment mission to Thabit (North Darfur). The authorities claimed the aircraft mistook the patrol for an armed movement convoy. The patrol, which was clearly displaying UNAMID/United Nations insignia, returned to base safely.
The mission was a pre-planned verification patrol that a Panel of Experts member availed himself of the opportunity to join.
UNAMID vigorously protested to Government military authorities in El Fasher and Khartoum over the incident.
The incident is reflected in paragraph 31 of the Report of the Secretary-General on UNAMID dated 16 October 2012.
Inner City Press went back to this report, and found this in Paragraph 31: “on 26 September, two Sudanese Armed Forces attack helicopters flew at low altitude over a UNAMID patrol that was returning from an assessment mission near Thabit. The authorities claimed that the aircraft mistook the patrol for an armed movement convoy. The patrol returned to base safely. UNAMID protested to the Government over the incident.”
So UNAMID's October 2012 report to the Council did not mention that there was a member of the Panel of Experts with the convoy; it did not mention that patrol “was clearly displaying UNAMID/United Nations insignia,” not the “vigor” with which UNAMID now says it protested.
Since UNAMID never put out even a press release (when for example its sister mission MONUSCO in the Congo on January 30 devoted a full press release to denouncing a publication by Inner City Press, but then wouldn't point to a single factual mistake) leads one to question how “vigorous” the protest was.
Stepping back, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous appears to have little consistency. It has become under Ladsous, as at least one DPKO whistleblower puts it, “pure politics.” Watch this site.
