By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 1 -- After the war in Southern Kordofan was expanded to Umm Rawaba in North Kordofan, Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Inner City Press he had written to the UN Security Council asking them to condemn the attack.
On Wednesday Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice about it. She stopped and said, with some sarcasm, "Like we've had so many statements recently." The Council had been preparing a Presidential Statement when Sudan and South Sudan reached the Matrix of Implementation of their agreements.
Russia proposed a minimalist press statement congratulating the parties; the US position was that more of the narrative and outstanding issues should be included. And so, as often happens on Syria as well, no statement at all. And this time?
On April 29, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman raised the attack on Umm Rawaba in North Kordofan to the Council, and asked for sanctions on the rebels.
Afterward Inner City Press asked UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant what he thought. He said the UK would not in principle oppose sanctions on some rebels, but the relative balance with what the government has been doing would have to be taken into account.
Meanwhile at Wednesday's UN noon briefing Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky if the UNMISS mission in South Sudan agreed with the government in Juba that the recent deadly attack on UN peacekeepers was by the David Yau Yau rebels.
Inner City Press also asked if Ban's envoy Hilde Johnson had spoken with the government about their amnesty offer to rebels, including the Yau Yau rebels.
One might have thought the UN would have said, including publicly, that amnesty could NOT cover the killing of peacekeepers. But there was no immediate answer. Watch this site.
