By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 13 -- With the UN in South Sudan still separating those in its camps into "Dinka" and "Nuer," Inner City Press on January 13 asked UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky what the UN's policy on making such separations, particularly after Srebrenica, is.Video here, from Minute 12:20.
UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer had told some media that the segregation "initiative is on request of community leaders. They’ve advised that this is the best way to keep things calm and stable inside the base. If there is any policy here it’s not ethnic separation. It’s to work with community leaders."
Nesirky first said that thousands have been saved by sheltering in ten UN bases, and that the separation is ongoing. He said his colleagues in UN Peacekeeping have answered.
But, Inner City Press asked, where would such deference to the requests of "community leaders," such as could have been made even by the authorities in Rwanda in early 1994, stop -- segregation by race or religion? Would this be done in, say, the Central African Republic or Syria? By the UN?
Nesirky said that the situation inside the camps in South Sudan is precarious because things are crowded, and "tensions could arise." All the more reason to have a policy. So what is the UN's policy? Watch this site.
