By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 22 -- When a UN peacekeeper get killed, how is “Who did it” announced, and by whom?
In the case of the Ethiopian peacekeeper killed last week in Kadugli, it wasn't the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, or the Office of the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, despite two separate sets of questions by Inner City Press at the noon briefings of June 14 and June 18.
On June 20, DPKO chief Herve Ladsous declined to hold a Press stakeout on Sudan, as his predecessors Alain Le Roy and Jean-Marie Guehenno almost certainly would have done.
Rather, on June 22 the UN in Sudan flatly put in a report that the SPLM-North rebels did it. The report was by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; it was tweeted by UN Information Center in Khartoum, run by the UN Department of Public Information.
The new Free UN Coalition for Access tweeted back at UNIC Khartoum, asking for an explanation of the statement on SPLM-N, compared to the UN in New York having said it was under investigation and then giving no further update.
Hours went by, but this DPI unit which had just tweeted on this topic did not response much less explain.
On June 14, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesperson Martin Nesirky:
Inner City Press: the attack on Kadugli, I wanted to ask you, there have been shelling in the past by the SPLM-North [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army] of the city of Kadugli. So, is it possible to say either who did it or at least what type of shells were used?
Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, I do know that there is already an investigation under way to look into this incident... to try to understand and establish precisely what happened. And that is something that is under way. Therefore, we cannot really go into it any further about who may or may not have been responsible for it, okay.
Four days later on June 18, Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey:
Inner City Press: I want to ask you about Kadugli and Sudan where the peacekeeper was killed last week. The SPLM-North [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North] has said that there had been shelling on Friday, what they called military targets in Kadugli, and they actually have now said that they’ve resumed shelling on Monday. I know that it was said initially that the UN is investigating and can’t say anything, but there is a party that is shelling the city, so I wanted to know, has there been any further development on the UN’s investigation?
Deputy Spokesperson: Well, as I said, we will have to check into it. The investigation continues; I don’t have any further update. We’ll try and get an update on the investigation.
But in the four days since there has been no update given. Herve Ladsous refused to do a stakeout on June 20 -- in the past, when a peacekeeper was killed, the head of DPKO would take questions.
Now the report UN Sudan (OCHA) is here, stating “On 14 June, a member of the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei was killed and two others injured when shells fired by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) hit the UNISFA logistics base in Kadugli.”
So is it that the UN in Sudan wants to tell that audience that the SPLM-N did it, but Ladsous doesn't want to? Or is Ladsous simply unable or unwilling to provide information, even on a dead peacekeeper? This is the type of issue the Free UN Coalition is working on, including through itsTwitter account @FUNCA_info. Watch this site.
