By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 27 -- After the UN Security Council met on October 24 about Sudan and South Sudan, Inner City Press asked Azerbaijan's Agshin Mehdiyev, the Security Council's president of October, if there had been any discussion of the idea of holding the Abyei referendum now.
Mehdiyev answered that the elements to the press which he had just read out to an otherwise empty media stakeout contained the answer: no, the Council is not in favor.
But what now, that Sudan has "obstructed" the African Union visit to Abyei planned for October 26-27? The AU has already complained, here.
Inner City Press on October 24 obtained and published the UN Security Council's agreed-to elements to the press, including:
The members of the Council expressed support for the African Union Peace and Security Council visit to Abyei on 26-27 October and urged both communities to use this visit as an opportunity to ease tension.
The members of the Council looked forward to hearing from the AUPSC regarding its findings and to advancing the Parties’ efforts to peacefully resolve their differences.
Well, now Sudan for whatever reason has blocked the visit -- they cited security -- and so, what will the Council hear from the AUPSC, other than this statement blaming Sudan for any negative consequences of blocking the visit?
For comparison's sake, the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons on October 27 announced that Syria has met its deadlines, and that it is reporting that to the Security Council.
Some say that, like Susan Rice, much of the energetic concern about Sudan and Abyei has left the Security Council.
So how will the Council process these different reports on Sudan and Syria, where France for example openly wants to just name a replacement leader, the Saudi-sponsored and Turkey-based Ahmad al Jarba?
And what about the people trying to return to Abyei to vote, reportedly left under insufficient sheet plastic without enough mosquito nets?
Inner City Press asked the UN's special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons Chaloka Beyani about the IDPs in Abyei. He said that in his visit to Sudan, he had not been able to visit Abyei, Southern Kordofan or Blue Nile states due to security concerns; he will soon travel to South Sudan.
Inner City Press asked him about accountability, including for UN Peacekeeping, for the killing of IDPs in Nahibly camp in Cote d'Ivoire. He said the government had said it will prosecute but he had no information that it has -- rather like the assurances UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous accepted from Congolese authorities about the 135 rapes at Minova by their forces.
These are other examples of the Council's concern moving on, or never really being there.
Amid the calls for accountability in the Kampala talks between M23 and the Congolese, the callers including the US and its envoy Russ Feingold are not making the obvious link to the Congolese failure to hold to account even one of those who committed mass rape in Minova, including from the US trained 391st Battalion.
A year ago, to the day, Beyani told Inner City Press that the UN Peacekeepers at Nahibly did not shot to protect civilians, since the attackers were not an army, but other civilians.
With Ladsous in DRC using attack helicopters and devoting UN resources to support France in Mali, while not protecting perceived Laurent Gbagbo supports in Cote d'Ivoire, one has to wonder what has become of UN Peacekeeping under his tenure.
To return to Abyei, what is the result of the promised investigation into the killing of the Paramount Chief of the area, which Ladsous' DPKO promised? What is it? Ladsous will not answer: video here, UN coverage here. Is this the UN? We'll find out. Watch this site.
