At UN on Sudan, No Comment on Torture or Undercutting ICC, Turabi Arrest

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 18 -- As the UN and its Security Council heaped praise on the government of Omar al Bashir for the Southern Sudan referendum, the UN had no comment on Bashir officials' torture of Darfur activists and detention of (Islamist) opposition figure Hassan al-Turabi.

Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Martin Nesirky about the reported torture of the editor of Al Sahafa newspaper, and Turabi's arrest. On the torture, Nesirky said he would have to check, presumably with Ibrahim Gambari. On the latter, Nesirky said “I think we'll be able to say something a little later.”

Running to the Security Council stake out, Inner City Press asked Sudan's Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman about Turabi's arrest. “Let me ask you a question,” Sudan's Ambassador replied, blaming the arrest on a call for Tunisia like demonstrations.

Inner City Press asked him why his government had not flown International Criminal Court indictee Ahmed Haroun to Abyei rather than having the UN do it.

He first claimed not to know of Haroun's trip. Then to an Inner City Press follow up he said, the UN is not an off shoot of the ICC.

When UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant took questions some days ago, Inner City Press asked him about the UN Mission in Sudan under Haile Menkerios using a UN aircraft to transport ICC indictee Haroun.

I am not going to second guess the UN, Lyall Grant said. So much for overseeing the UN's compliance not only with human rights standards but even the Council's mandates.

Inner City Press asked this month's Council president, Bosnia's Ambassador Barbalic, about the UN flying Haroun around, even the Council's Press Statement's reference to holding accountable those responsible for crimes in Darfur. That was not discussed today, he answered and said, I do not have the information.

After the Council meeting, Inner City Press asked top UN peacekeeper Alain Le Roy about the UN flying ICC indictee Haroun into Abyei. Le Roy at least acknowledged being aware of the criticism, but said that getting Haroun there to speak with normadic tribes was the focus.

But Sudan has its own airforce, which uses to bomb. That Haroun set up a TV interview for the airport at which he landed in the UN plane does not appear to be a coincidence. The UN was used to undercut the war crimes indictments. And the UN says nothing about it. Watch this site.

Chez Susan Rice, Cote d'Ivoire Plots, Sudan Greets and Meats, UN Holidays

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 9 -- The Ambassadors of Sudan and Cote d'Ivoire were among the guests at US Ambassador Susan Rice's diplomatic holiday party Thursday night in the Waldorff Towers. The former, Dafallah Osman, had two hours earlier delivered a speech saying that humanitarian groups in Darfur were engaged in “espionage.”

The Ivorian charge d'affaires asked Inner City Press what now should happen to Laurent Gbagbo, who had appointed him. His interlocutor, another African Permanent Representative, predicted that Gbagbo will try to stay in power a la Robert Mugabe.

The Ivorian invitation, it was argued, was sent before Gbagbo ignored the election results, and the remnant Deputy Ambassador wasn't part of the “dark side.” But he was plotting how Gbagbo could stay in power, in Susan Rice's living room. This is diplomacy at the UN.

The crowd was laudably eclectic, including the Special Adviser for the Responsibility to Protect rushing to catch a train for Westchester, the Special Representative on Sexual Violence and Armed Conflict and a slew of Ambassadors, many of whom had stopped first at a Kazakhstan event.

The Ambassador of Serbia, a long time UN employee from Georgia and India, bragged about his country's Davis Cup tennis win over France. The Ambassador of Palau, from the Upper West Side, talked up his wife's country's move to create a sanctuary for sharks.

Tajikistan is taking the chair, at least in New York, of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which sides with Sudan's Omar al Bashir over the International Criminal Court. “I am only the chair,” the Tajik Ambassador told Inner City Press. Israel's Ambassador also spoke at length, which may be a separate story.

In the US Mission residence's dining room there was turkey, ham and cheese and slew of ASGs, from Human Resources to ACABQ. Interesting art on the walls was said to be on loan for a program for US Embassies. The full USUN team was in the house, from the spokespeople to Rosemary DiCarlo through Brooke Anderson to Rick Barton and Ambassador Melrose, who covers the Budget Committee.

The US' big event this month will be Youth in the Security Council. Austria will have three youths there, but only if they can pay their own airfare. While they will fetchingly stay overnight with the Austrian Perm Rep, could this be just an event for rich kids?

Even in the US, schools are on hiatus when the event is being held. We'll see who shows up, and what scholarships are provided. It was a friendly event full of holiday spirit. And in Sudan, the UN Mission in Darfur covers up killings. UN Peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy told Inner City Press he will look into it. What will the US do? Watch this site.

On Darfur, As UNAMID Covers Up Killings by Sudan, ICC Reports Them

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 9 -- After the UN refused to release what it knows about the killing of civilians at Tabarat and the destruction of Soro and other villages in Darfur in September, the International Criminal Court's report unveiled in the Security Council on December 9 names 13 other destroyed villages (with Soro transliterated as “Souroo”), and has witness quotes what it calls the government sponsored killing in Tabarat (which it calls Tabra).

After ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo's presentation to the Security Council on Thursday, Inner City Press on camera asked both him and Sudan's Permanent Representative to the UN Dafallah Osman about the Tabra killings and the destruction of villages.

Sudan's Ambassador said that the killings were “tribal,” involving kidnapping and promises to pay blood money. He praised UNAMID and its leader Ibrahim Gambari (calling him a “seasoned diplomat”).

Inner City Press asked if he thought UNAMID should release what it knows about the Tabra killings. This, he did not answer, instead ranging from saying that Ocampo's report shows NGOs were engaged in “espionage” to claiming that Radio Dabanga was disseminating destabilizing and even “genocidal” information.

Ocampo had stood several yards away, unlike with the previous Sudanese Ambassador Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed, whom Ocampo stood right next to during their final stare down. When Ocampo came to the microphone, Inner City Press asked him if he thought UNAMID was in essence covering up Sudan's and Bashir's acts by not reporting on them.

Ocampo said that UNAMID is under threat, that's why it doesn't report. This means that UNAMID is not reporting, which is its job. What will Ban Ki-moon, the Security Council and Obama administration do?

Earlier on Thursday, Mark Hanis of the Genocide Intervention Network / Save Darfur Coalition on a press conference call said Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden campaigned on (among other things) protecting civilians in Darfur, and named Samantha Power and Susan Rice as officials. Hanis called them “disappointing” so far. Inner City Press asked what UNAMID should do. Report, Hanis said. But UNAMID does not.

On both December 8 and 9, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky about fighting and death in Darfur, including in Tabarat / Tabra:

Inner City Press: a request made to UNAMID [African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur] for the report that they were supposed to do on the Tabarat killings of 2 September, near Tawilla, the one that the Secretary-General summoned Mr. [Ibrahim] Gambari to speak about. Anyway, somebody that asked him was told that there is no report for external dissemination available on it, and I just wonder, what is the UN’s final finding? Did it do the right thing, in apparently not getting out to the site despite the warning by relatives of those killed? Are all such reports confidential, and in which case, how is the Security Council or the international community to assess the level of violence and killing in Darfur if these new reports never come out?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, that’s a very long question.

Question: This is the only time I’ll ask it, but if there is anything the UN can say about those killings, I’d like to know.

Spokesperson: Well, I hear your question, I think, and let’s look into what the Mission tells us.

More than a full day later, UNAMID has said nothing. When Inner City Press asked again about UNAMID on December 9, Nesirky claimed he had already answered questions, including about attacks the Sudanese government had just bragged about.

In assuming Presidency of the Security Council for December, Susan Rice told Inner City Press that UNAMID (and UNMIS) are required to investigate and report on attacks on civilians. Does that mean report to the public, as the ICC does? What will Susan Rice and the US Mission do?

The press had been told that Susan Rice would speak at the stakeout, where Ocampo and Sudan's Ambassador did. But she did not. A reporter given advance notice that she would not come was told that “one country” had blocked the elements to the press that she would have read. But she could have spoken, especially after what Sudan's Ambassador said, including denying things that the US Mission has previously said, about the Council's interlocutors being harassed and Radio Dabanga's Khartoum office being shut down.

Footnote: Inner City Press also asked Ocampo about Guinea -- he said he is watching “national proceedings” -- and Kenya, where witnesses are under threat. Ocampo answered by bragging that none of his witnesses have been injured. But how about retaliated against, given what Sudan's Ambassador said about the NGOs. Watch this site.

UN Genocide Adviser Francis Deng Refuses to Answer on Sudan, Defers to Khartoum PR

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 28 -- When the UN's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide hosts an event about “Dangerous Speech on the Road to Genocide,” it seems fair to ask about Sudan, the only country subject to an indictment for genocide by the International Criminal Court -- especially with the Adviser is from Sudan, and the UN helps produce and sell his books about Sudan.

But when Inner City Press asked Francis Deng and his co-presenter Dr. Susan Benesch for this opinions of genocide and Sudan, and the place of media strategies in this, the UN's Deng refused to comment, and instead deferred to the Ambassador of Sudan, Dafaala Al Haj Ali Osman, who ridiculed the ICC's genocide charge by only partially quoting the definition of genocide.

Neither Deng nor Dr. Benesch offered any response to Sudan, including the misquoting of the Genocide Convention.

After Inner City Press asked its question, Dr. Benesch said, “Mr. Lee asked Dr. Deng about Sudan and about Sri Lanka and since he's far more expert over those topics, I would defer to him to answer.”

But Deng in turn deferred, to the representative of the very government accused of genocide. Deng said, “I think we should restrict our questions and comments on the subject of today's lecture.” Video here, from Minute 57:08.

Since the event was about genocide and media, a question about genocide and the Sudanese media seemed well within the subject. Inner City Press emphasized this, so that Deng couldn't use fairness as a basis for not answering noting the presence of Sudan's Ambassador in the room.

“So ask him,” Deng said. Video here, from Minute 57:08.

Sudan's Dafaala Al Haj Ali Osman took the floor, and made a presentation he later admonished Inner City Press to “reflect.” He began by saluting “my fellow citizen” Francis Deng, then launched into Inner City Press, video here from Minute 58:

“Despite the fact that Professor Susan has answered you [that] this is out of the context of this workshop or lecture, I will try to give you a few glimpses, how this is related to Sudan. I think you have read this pamphlet it talks about a definition of genocide, 'the deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group.'

[Note: the full quote, relegated by the UN to the inside of its pamphlet, is the “intent to destroy, in whole OR IN PART, a national ethnical, racial or religious group.']

Deng (2d from right) on a UN Panel, answers on Sudan and books not shown

Sudan's Ambassador, using the half-quote of the Genocide Convention, continued:

“If we want to apply it to Darfur we find a rebellion against central authority... they killed Army people and Police... I think any student of law would know that the central authority or the President is obliged by the constitution of the land to react to put an end to a military operation, to establish peace and security.. To share some information not unveiled for one reason nor another, the Prosecutor General of ICC in his accusation that the President has committed genocide mentions three tribes. For your information 45 individuals or more of those three tribes are members of the National Parliament in Sudan and more than that number are Parliament members in the 25 parliaments in the regional states of Sudan. The federal Minister of Justice in Sud belongs to one of these tribes. I really don't follow you, if it really a genocide, how would the President spare all these people, and not exterminate them?”

Apparently, the survival (for now) of 45 people disproves genocide. One would have expected Ban Ki-moon's Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide to have spoken up against such an interpretation. But he did not. As Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky on October 27, it is unclear when Deng is working and speaking for the UN, and when he is not. From the transcript:

Inner City Press: This is also on Sudan, but it’s sort of on the UN. There was an event yesterday held by DPI [Department of Public Information] in the North Lawn Building called Event, New Vision, it was about Sudan and it had Mr. [Francis] Deng speaking at some length about books that he has written. It had books for sale outside the room and had the host, the Ambassador of Sudan. But what had led me to wonder is, I know Mr. Deng is the Special [Adviser] on prevention of genocide, but it seems… I’ve heard from people that these books are written on UN time; that this is actually one of the things that he does in his UN office. And so, I just, I am unclear of what to make of the book, of the books that he produces. If they are created on UN time and with UN money, are they UN views or is there some, what are topics is his office working on in terms of…?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Did you attend it yesterday?

Inner City Press: I did attend it.

Spokesperson: And you asked him?

Inner City Press: And I asked him afterwards what other countries he is working on prevention of genocide; he said, “We don’t like to be country-specific.” But it seems like it’s hard to prevent genocide unless you name countries.

Spokesperson: Well, this is obviously something that Mr. Deng can comment on. I don’t have anything on that.

Inner City Press: What are rules, I guess I am saying, for UN, if a UN official spends his time in the UN building while on UN time writing books? Does the UN own the copyright?

Spokesperson: That’s what you are saying. Or you said, “Some people say”. That is not an established fact, Matthew. You shouldn’t then turn it into an established fact. You said, “Some people say”.

Inner City Press: Okay. If you can look into it and find that no staff member’s time is entirely…

Spokesperson: As I said, it sounds like you had the chance to ask Mr. Deng yesterday.

Inner City Press: But also, was, is the book being sold…

Spokesperson: Any other questions? Yes, Khaled?

A Permanent Five member of the Security Council told Inner City Press on the morning of October 28 that these “Deng book questions” were good. So while Deng as Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide may have refused to answer the question genocide and Sudan, maybe these questions about Deng and the UN will be answered. Watch this site.

UN Sudan Debate Degenerates to Book Sales, In Empire of Deng, Genocide Forgotten

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 27 -- When the UN holds an event entitled “Sudan, a Vision for the Future” six weeks before the referendum on secession is slated to be held, it seems worth going to.

There were piles of books for sale by the event's entrance in the UN's North Lawn building. UN official Francis Deng, charged with preventing genocide but rarely seen these days, was speaking about his writings, including “New Sudan in the Making” published, strangely, by Third World Book of Trenton, New Jersey and Asmara, Eritrea.

The event was moderated by Kiyotaka Akasaka of the UN Department of Public Information, who intervened to cut short the response by Sudanese Ambassador Dafaala El Haj Ali Osman so that questions could be asked the audience, including those online.

Inner City Press asked about the religious differences between South Sudan and the North, about how external debt might be divided, and the implications of a planned new oil pipeline to run south through Kenya. Only one of these questions was answered, and even then only by saying that debt is being negotiated in Addis Ababa, under the rubric of Liabilities.

Afterward, Inner City Press asked Mr. Deng what other countries he and his UN Prevention of Genocide are working on, including what he might think of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's panel of experts on accountability in Sri Lanka, which has not even asked to visit that country.

Deng said “we don't like to single out countries” then said he was distracted due to an upcoming appointment. He was courteous as always and patrician -- of Abyei aristocracy -- but one wonders what is being accomplished.

Sources say that under Deng, the UN Prevention of Genocide office is largely devoted to producing and promoting Deng's writings, including the time of other staff members of the Office.

“Nice work if you can get it,” one insider commented, while noting that a less distracted person might be better for the UN's Prevention of Genocide post, unless it is by UN design a no-show job.

If Deng's writings are being produced on UN time and with UN money, then shouldn't they be attributable to the UN? His “New Sudan in the Making” volume has a chapter by “Eltigani Seisi M. Ateem” -- the former UN staff member at the Economic Commission on Africa who was drafted, including by joint UN - African Union mediator Bassole, to lead the Darfur “Astroturf rebel” group the Liberation and Justice Movement. (Astroturf, the artificial surface in the now demolished Houston Astrodome, means fake grassroots.)

Also appearing on the panel was UN peacekeeping's Team Leader of the Sudan Operational Team Jack Christofides, who afterward briefed a Permanent Five Security Council diplomat about the “logistics” of the Security Council's recent trip to Sudan.

What is the UN accomplishing with all this book publishing and self- and Deng-promotion? As Deng concludes New Sudan in the Making?, “the question mark... is therefore pertinent.” Watch this site.

Footnote: as to UN DPI and Mr. Akasaka, having debates with Q&A is generally a good thing. But it was alleged by a panelist after Tuesday's session that the purpose was to promote sales of a UN official's book. This should be clarified. Mr. Akasaka at the end mentioned possible future sessions on Haiti or Pakistan -- perhaps Jean Maurice Ripert could lead that session, since he is still being paid despite being relieved of his Pakistan envoy position. Could there be a book deal in the works?

At UN on Darfur Arrestees, Susan Rice Issues Skeptical Statement, Sudan Blames on NGOs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- So did Sudan arrest internally displaced people who spoke with the UN Security Council in Abu Shouk IDP camp earlier this month?

The US belatedly went public about the issue, first in background comments late last week. Then on Monday after a Security Council meeting at which Sudan denied the arrests, including after the meeting in a stakeout Q&A with Inner City Press, the US issued a written statement by Ambassador Susan Rice, who was not present at the Council meeting.

Rice's statement concluded that “the U.S. and the UK asked the UN to address this issue in today's UN Security Council briefing so that the full Council could hear directly from UN officials about this matter. We have yet to receive any information that alleviates our deep concern over this issue.”

Sources inside the Security Council's closed door consultations told Inner City Press that the UK and one non-Permanent member asked UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy to say what the UN knows about arrests, and to “not politicize” the issue. Le Roy's subsequent answer was described as “strange” and “not convincing.”

Inner City Press asked Le Roy, as he left the meeting, if the US or UK had provided him with names, on a confidential basis. No, he said, adding that the names were not known.

On camera at the UN stakeout, Inner City Press asked Sudan's Ambassador to the UN Dafaala El Haj Ali Osman about the arrests. He acknowledged arrests, but not of anyone who had met with the Security Council. Video here.

A Sudanese diplomat scoffed to Inner City Press that “Susan Rice got a letter from the Enough Project and Genocide Intervention, that's all this is.”

But did these two groups and the four other ones signing the letter think that Susan Rice would be at the Security Council meeting where it was discussed, to push on the issue and speak afterward to counter the defiant denial of her Sudanese counterpart Dafaala El Haj Ali? Watch this site.

At UN on Darfur Arrestees, Sudan Defiant While Gambari Absent

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 25 -- As on Darfur the UN Security Council met on Monday, the Ambassador of Sudan Dafaala El Haj Ali Osman denied to Inner City Press that any of the internally displaced people who met with the Council in Abu Shouk IDP Camp have been arrested.

While the US on Friday belated went public with charges of the arrests, there was no direct response from the US Mission to Sudan's denial.

Inside the Council, top UN peacekeeper Alain Le Roy said cautiously -- and vaguely -- that “we are not in a position to provide names of the alleged victims, out of concern to protect our sources from retaliation.”

Did this mean that the UN is confirming the arrests but withholding the names? Inner City Press asked lead UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky, who insisted, you've heard what Mr. Le Roy said. Yes, but it is intentionally unclear.

It seems to some that Sudan knew in advance that the UN would decline to provide the names of arrestees. But how would Sudan know?

Ibraham Gambari, it emerges from Nigerian Mission sources, has been in New York since Friday. Surprisingly, as the Council met Monday about his peacekeeping mission, he was not present. Inner City Press asked Nesirky about this, and Nesirky said he would inquire. Watch this site.