Exclusive: Sudan Throws Out UN Resident Coordinator Ali Al Za'tari, As NGOs Tell Ban Ki-moon to Fire Herve Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 25, more here -- Amid charges that the UN in Sudan, including Herve Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping in Darfur, has colluded with the authorities in Khartoum to cover up rapes and killing, now the UN's Resident Coordinator Ali Al Za'tari has been ordered to leave Sudan by January 2, Inner City Press is informed.

   On December 24, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about Sudan having just similarly "PNG-ed" or declared persona non-grata the Sudan Country Director of the UN Development Program Yvonne Helle, with Za'tari barely pushing back against the government.

  Dujarric said that host countries' ordered to PNG a UN staff member are treated seriously and should be sent to, and considered and acted on by, Ban's Secretariat in New York. But Dujarric in the 18 hours since Inner City Press asked about Helle has not returned with any information or answer.

  Now, on the Christmas holiday and with UN Headquarters and the UN Security Council in New York closed, Za'tari has sent out this e-mail, which Inner City Press has obained and publishes here:

From: Ali Al-Za'tari [at] undp.org
Date: December 25, 2014 at 12:55:04 PM GMT+3
To: UNCT1 Sudan, UNCT2 Sudan, UNCT3 Sudan, UNDP Sudan
Subject: I am Leaving

Dear all,

I regret to inform you that the government had requested me today to leave Sudan. I will do so on 2 January. Best. ali

ali al-za'tari
UN RC/HC
UNDP RR
Khartoum - SUDAN

   UNCT is the UN Country Team, which as RC (Resident Coordinatory) Za'tari is or has been in charge of.

  Sudan PNG-ing even Za'tari, who has been so accommodating, leads Inner City Press' sources in Sudan to surmise that the government of International Criminal Court indictee Omar al Bashir is "just going for it," after having told UN Peacekeeping to start preparing to leave.

 UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous has helped cover up rapes in Darfur; Ladsous met with Bashir without ever explaining or answering Press questions why.

  Now what will Ban and Ladsous, who 123 non-government organizations and Sudan experts have asked Ban to fire, do? What will the UN Security Council, of which a Permanent Member has confirmed to Inner City Press having received the "fire Ladsous" letter from the NGOs, do? Watch this site.

  Here is what Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Dujarric on December 24, as transcribed by the UN:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you to confirm and comment on the Government of Sudan ordering the UNDP country representative Yvonne Helle to leave the country by Monday.  There is already an e-mail by Ali Al-Za’tari, the Resident Coordinator, saying essentially she is gone, she will be missed.  So I wanted to know... what is the UN's policy when the Government orders somebody out?  Is it common to immediately accept it or is it sent to Headquarters to decide whether to combat it and fight it or oppose it?

Spokesman Dujarric:  As you profiled, I'm not aware of this particular case.  Obviously, declaring a person PNG, to be asked to leave is a serious issue, which is discussed at Headquarters — but I will find out.

Inner City Press: I've seen the e-mails and there is basically a one-hour gap between her e-mail to staff saying “I have to leave by Monday”, and Mr. Ali Al-Za’tari saying “not nice to see you go” but essentially, “sorry”.  I'm wondering, can you confirm that there is a protocol?

Spokesman Dujarric:  As I said, these things are taken very seriously.

  Really?

   On December 24 Yvonne Helle said, in an e-mail obtained by Inner City Press, "The Government of Sudan has informed Ali [Al-Za'tari] that I am no longer welcome in Sudan and have been asked to leave by Monday. You can imagine the state of shock I am in... As you all know, I loved working and living in Sudan. Given the timing it will be impossible to say goodbye to alll of you in person, so herewith my heartfelt goodbye to you in writing."

  Ali Al-Za'tari is the UN's "Resident Coordinator" in Sudan; whistleblowers tell Inner City Press he has "simply accepted this as usual... It will become a regular thing as long as he is so concerned to please internal security instead of standing up for the Sudanese people."

  An hour after Yvonne Helle's message, Al-Za'tari wrote, "As you have read in Yvonne's message, a government decision was made and formally delivered regarding Yvonne's stay in Sudan... I will miss Yvonne as a leader of thought and creativity."

  It is not only UNDP that gives in so easily to the authorities in Khartoum.

     Amid the cover up of rapes in Darfur by UN Peacekeeping, whose chief Herve Ladsous met with Sudan's International Criminal Court - indicted president Omar al Bashir without ever explaining why, 123 non-governmental organizations and human rights experts and activists have called for Ladsous to be fired. Ladsous video here, Vine here.

   Inner City Press has obtained the letter and published it below.

  At the UN's December 22 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric to confirm receiving and then provide responsive comment on the letter. Video here, including sample Ladsous "walk away" on April 23, 2014 about his cover up in South Sudan.

   This follows UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon taking no questions about Darfur or Sudan during his December 17 press conference (at which, as noted by the Free UN Coalition for Access, Ban seemed to have the content of questions in advance.) Nor did Ban answer Inner City Press' request for an update at the Darfur rapes at the end of his December 22 media stake-out.

  The letter is copied to the presidents / prime minister, foreign ministers and UN ambassadors of the US, UK and France. How will they respond, particularly France which installed Ladsous atop UN Peacekeeping after their first selection, Jerome Bonnafont, was rejected at the last minute by the UN? And how might this new outspokenness of NGOs impact attempts to install Andrew Lansley atop the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs?

  The letter says, "The result has been a vastly expensive and discredited UN mission, led by Herve Ladsous, who consistently and deliberately diminishes the scale of the conflict in Darfur, thereby enabling Khartoum’s crimes to flourish, whilst the international community congratulates itself on improved circumstances in Darfur."

  The letter's final paragraph begins, "At the very least Herve Ladsous should not continue his role at the UN DPKO."

  Watch this site.