By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 5 -- Sudan and the International Criminal Court are on the UK Presidency's program of work for the UN Security Council for this morning. A UK government twitter account has announced it will be covering it. (There are obstacles, under the UK Presidency, to independent blog-style social media coverage of the Council, hence today's approach, click here for that.)
So what is the UN doing about the ICC indictees in Sudan? The UN has offered free flights on UN helicopters to indictee Ahmed Haroun, as Inner City Press covered extensively.
On June 4, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky:
Inner City Press: in Darfur it is reported that, that, that, that Ali Kushayb, who is one of the ICC [International Criminal Court] indictees, was seen in April as part of an attack on a village; and I wanted to know, since UNAMID is there, are they aware of that? Are they aware of the involvement of an ICC-indicted individual in this attack and, if so, what do they think of it? Do they think that this proves that that the ongoing involvement of these individuals in war crimes?
Spokesperson Nesirky: I’ll check with UNAMID, Matthew. I think you had one other question.
Yes, but what about that one? In the 19 hours since, no answer from UNAMID or DPKO has been provided. In fact, the update on the Congolese Army's 135 rapes in Minova that Inner City Press asked DPKO chief Herve Ladsous for on May 29 -- he said, "You know I don't respond to you," video here -- has still not been provided.
How about Chad, which invited indictee Omar al Bashir but is being courted to be part of the UN mission in Mali? So what about the UN and the ICC indictees? Watch this site.
