By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 9 -- How does the UN explain being targeted in Jonglei, South Sudan, seemingly by Yau Yau rebels from the Murle group?
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issues a statement that attacks on peacekeepers are subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous is nowhere to be found, but his spokesman Kieran Dwyer says the peacekeepers were targeted.
But why?
Could it be that, under envoy Hilde Johnson who wrote a fawning book about the South Sudan government, the UN Mission is viewed by rebels as entirely aligned with the government?
That in Jonglei this was fortified when Lou Nuer tribesmen killed hundreds of Murle in Pibor, and the UN was very slow to arrive, and then to admit the extent of the casualties?
Is anyone reporting on this? Or simple taking the line of the DPKO of Ladsous, who refuses to answer critical questions?
(It was Dwyer's colleague who went so far as to seize the UN Television microphone on December 18 to try to avoid an Inner City Press question to Ladsous about rapes by the Congolese Army, which Ladsous supports. But it was Dwyer who, leaving the role of honest spokesman, announced that Inner City Press' questions would only be answered under conditions set by Ladsous.)
At Tuesday's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked some questions about the attack. Later this came in:
Date: Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 2:58 PM
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Subject: Your question on UNMISS
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress [dot]com
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Subject: Your question on UNMISS
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress [dot]com
Regarding your question at noon today about whether any Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) forces were nearby when UNMISS peacekeepers were attacked, we can say that the attack hit a civilian convoy escorted by peacekeepers, who were not accompanying any SPLA forces.
While Ban Ki-moon's statement condoled with the government of South Sudan, the Security Council's statement only did so with the government of India, from where the five killed peacekeepers came.
The Security Council statement was drafted, by the US, to call “on all parties to cooperate with the mission.” After a response -- from Russia, Inner City Press' sources say -- it was specified to “all parties in South Sudan to cooperate with the mission.”
Russia had four of its pilots killed BY South Sudan in December 2012, after Johnson and the UN blamed it for their lack of planning in the run-up to the killings in Pibor.
Now Russia has been openly calling for oversight of Johnson and UNMISS -- and, it now seems clear and necessary, this incident. Watch this site.
