In Abyei, New UN Report Says South Sudan Has 660 Soldiers, Sudan 150 Oil Personnel, Violations Both

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 26 -- The UN's new report on Abyei, to become public under symbol S/2014/126, paints a picture of widespread violations by both Sudan and South Sudan, in the shadow of the crisis in the latter.

  From South Sudan, the UN report says its all-Ethiopia UNISFA mission in Abyei "observed the presence around 660 military elements of the SPLA and South Sudan National Police Service... armed with AK-47 rifles and anti-tank rocket propelled grenades; many of them have established military-type settlements, including fire trenches."

  This of course violates the June 2011 agreement; the UN adds that it "poses security risks to Misseriya nomads migrating through the area."

  Sudan, on the other hand, is reported also violate the agreement: "Sudan oil police continued to maintain approximately 120 to 150 personnel inside the Diffra oil complex in northern Abyei... about 30 Sudan oil personnel were observed in the vicinity of the Beer Adrak oil pump station and in Mekines, outside their usual area of deployment in the Diffra oil complex." What now?

  The last time the UN Security Council considered Abyei, back on November 25, 2013, Sudan's and South Sudan's ambassadors traded speeches about Abyei in the Council, and things got personal.

  While the Security Council urged against the unilateral referendum held in Abyei, South Sudan's Francis Deng on Monday praised it. He said the Miseriya had been out of the area "in their own homeland" 125 miles away when the referendum was held.

  Inner City Press has previously reported that Deng's family comes from Abyei, and has questioned if he owns property there. It makes for a more dramatic story.

  Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman took the floor to say Deng's speech was against the current tenor between Khartoum and Juba, and was based on "personal interests" and not the interests of the whole of South Sudan.

  It's rare these days at the UN for arguments to turn personal in this way. Relatedly, some in the Council note that soon after Ambassador Susan Rice was promoted to Washington, there were no more twice a month meetings on Sudan and South Sudan. In fairness we report that others say that's a coincidence. Like Deng's personal story? Both are compelling. 

  Now on February 26, Daffa-Alla has moved on from his posting in New York, and it is reported that Francis Deng has been recalled to Juba. Watch this site.

  

After UN's Ladsous Met Sudan's Bashir, Prosecutor Bensouda Tells Inner City Press ICC "Has No Info" - Non-Essential Meeting? Double Standards

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 11 -- When on Sudan the International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda briefed the UN Security Council on Wednesday, about the need to arrest Sudanese president Omar al Bashir, there was an elephant in the room: UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, who met with Bashir in July.

  Actually, Ladsous had been in the Security Council in the morning, but unlike the other two briefers did not speak to or take any questions from the press when he left.

  Bensouda said that either Sudan could come contest the indictment of Bashir (and others including Ahmad Haroon, to whom Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping has given free flights to and from Abyei) -- or, arrests should be made. Ladsous made no arrests in July.

  After Wednesday's meeting, Inner City Press waited and asked Bensouda what she as prosecutor thought of UN official Ladsous having met with Bashir.

  Bensouda said, "we are consistently saying that these non essential meetings should be avoided.... I do not know what was the purpose of that meeting."

  She cited a UN policy -- put out by the Office of Legal Affairs but apparently not respected by Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations -- of only essential meetings being held with indictees.

  Inner City Press asked her if, as a major / vocal state party to the Rome Statute told it, the UN is now going to give the Court or Association of State Parties prior notice before contacts like Ladsous' with Bashir.

  Bensouda replied that she wounldn't call it notice, but "we have discussed some visits before, why it was essential."

  So, Inner City Press asked, what about Ladsous' July 2013 meeting with Bashir?

  Bensouda said, "the one in July, we have not had any information about it."

  Ladsous has a history, of not answering Press questions.Video here, UK coverage here. But this is one he should answer. Will he?

  Sudanese Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, after harshly criticizing Bensouda in his speech in the Council, agreed to answer a few Inner City Press questions afterward in the so called Turkish Lounge next to the Security Council. 

 While this used to be the media's space, during the UN renovation the UN took money from Turkey for the space. Now, it is said, reporters can only go there if invited by a diplomat. This is challenged by the new Free UN Coalition for Access as a decline in working conditions and access under this UN.

  Wednesday as noted Inner City Press was invited into the Turkish Lounge area, but nevertheless was told to get back in the penned stakeout. (In noting this, the focus is not on the one endeavoring to implement the vague policy, but on the policy and vagueness themselves, which are an invitation, too often accepted, for more UN double standards.)

    Meanwhile scribes favored by -- and spying for -- the UN and its Censorship Alliance (click here) plop down in the Turkish Lounge to make cell phone calls.

  Likewise while disfavored NGOs are told they cannot be at the stakeout, last week Human Rights Watch's UN lobbyist, a former France 24 and Le Monde journalist, was at the stakeout spinning Central African Republic, with no mention of its problems' French colonial roots. As Sudan says: double standards. As Inner City Press says: Ladsous is the elephant in the room. Watch this site.

   

On Abyei, South Sudan's Deng Praises Referendum, Sudan PR Calls It Personal, Susan Rice Echo

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 25 -- Sudan's and South Sudan's ambassadors traded speeches about Abyei in the UN Security Council Monday morning, and things got personal.

  While the Security Council urged against the unilateral referendum held in Abyei, South Sudan's Francis Deng on Monday praised it. He said the Miseriya had been out of the area "in their own homeland" 125 miles away when the referendum was held.

  Inner City Press has previously reported that Deng's family comes from Abyei, and has questioned if he owns property there. It makes for a more dramatic story.

  Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman took the floor to say Deng's speech was against the current tenor between Khartoum and Juba, and was based on "personal interests" and not the interests of the whole of South Sudan.

  It's rare these days at the UN for arguments to turn personal in this way. Relatedly, some in the Council note that soon after Ambassador Susan Rice was promoted to Washington, there were no more twice a month meetings on Sudan and South Sudan. In fairness we report that others say that's a coincidence. Like Deng's personal story? Both are compelling. Watch this site.

   

A Tale of Two Sudans: UN Inaction in Jonglei & Abyei, Double Standards on Sudans, Rebels & Media Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 23 -- In the war of separation between Sudan and South Sudan, millions died, and tensions remain. 

  Yet when the two countries ambassador emerged from the UN Security Council to speak to the media on Friday, only two correspondents asked them questions. And both offered answers at the stakeout, unlike what happened at the higher-profile Syria chemical weapons session on August 21. Video here and embedded below.

  Inner City Press asked South Sudan's representative about taking sides in the conflict between the Murle and Lou Nuer in Jonglei state, and what ever happened with theinvestigation the UN promised back in May into the killing of the Paramount Chief in Abyei.

  On the latter he replied that there was nothing to report. We note that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, now away on a long vacation, refused even while in New York to answer Press questions about the killings.

  To the side of the stakeout Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman indicated that he would not be coming to the microphone to speak. After Inner City Press asked South Sudan about the referendum in Abyei, and the flow of South Sudan oil through Sudan, he did in fact come to the microphone.

  He was critical of the proposals of some "equating" the rebels and government on the issue of humanitarian access to Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. (Inner City Press asked August's Council president, Argentina's Permanent Representative Perceval, about the fought over difference on aid between the adopted "to expedite" and the rejected "to allow;" she did not answer on camera but later joked about the "philosophical" question.)

  In further philosophy or lack thereof, the loudest Security Council members adopt entirely different approaches to government, rebels and outside supporters in Syria and in, say, Sudan, or the Democratic Republic of Congo. But more on that to come. For now we simply note, on another double standard, that Inner City Press coined a word while waiting at the stakeout with an eye on Egypt: "Cou-volution."

  Inner City Press asked Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman about the peacekeeping "catering" helicopter and crew taken hostage in early August by the Minnawi rebels in Darfur. "That is a UNAMID helicopter," he replied, "you should ask them."

  But the UN refuses to answer, beyond an "If-Asked" they would have been prepared to read out on August 5 if anyone had asked. They read it out only later, after Inner City Press inquired. Why is the UN staying quiet about an attack in one place, while declaring that any attack on its brigade in Eastern Congo would be a war crimes, even if the Brigade shoots first?

  There are other contradictions. This week US President Barack Obama and other Western leaders are demanding a UN investigation of chemical weapons in Syria. But look at the UN -- it hasn't finished the Abyei killing investigation it promised in May.

  And there are double standards in the UN itself. Last time Sudan and Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman were at the stakeout they witnessed one of Ladsous' spokespeople demanding that the first question, which UNAMID's chief was directing to Inner City Press, instead go to Agence France Presse, on one of whose management board Ladsous used to serve.

  On August 23 after the Security Council meeting on Sudan and South Sudan, Inner City Press was greeted by one of the concerned diplomats and told to come speak with him at the entrance of the so called Turkish Lounge.

  Inner City Press was conversing with the diplomat when UN Security ordered Inner City Press back into the penned-in stakeout. This is supposedly not the rule; the rule according to the Department of Public Information has supposedly not changed. The Free UN Coalition for Access put the question to UN DPI official Stephane Dujarric and the Media Accreditation unit he supervises.

  Moments later, when a former and a current Reuters reporter both went to talk outside the pen with the UK Deputy Permanent Representative, UN Security said nothing. Double standards, much?

  In fairness we praised DPI earlier today, for a briefing by UN Security chief Kevin Kennedy. But clearly DPI needs to explain its (new?) rules, to all reporters at the UN and to UN Security. And double standards, and further reductions, will be opposed by the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info. Watch this site.

   

To Ship Stopped in Panama, UN DPRK Sanctions Experts To Go “Very Soon,” Probe Less Clear in Darfur

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 18 -- In the wake of Panama's ship-stopping, the UN on Thursday morning was full of questions about the next steps. Luxembourg is the chair of the Democratic Republic of Korea sanctions committee; there was dark talk of the Grand Duchess Maria Teresa being born in and traveling to Havana.

  But Luxembourg's Permanent Representative to the UN Sylvie Lucas, gracious as ever in stopping to explain, told Inner City Press that the Panel of Experts does not need approval from the Sanctions Committee to go and investigate.

  After UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant tweeted that “thanks to good work by Panama, UN sanctions ctte will examine what looks like illegal Cuban arms shipment to DPRK,” US Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, in a rare question and answer stakeout, answered that a team should be on its way “very soon.”

  The team, though, will be from the Panel of Experts. Committee chair Lucas told the Press that there is no Committee session yet scheduled until they know more.

Inner City Press asked DeLaurentis about Sudanese Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman having met with the US Presidency of the Security Council on July 16. DeLaurentis confirmed the meeting, and said it mostly reiterated the points in Sudan's letter of July 15.

  Allowed a follow-up, and grateful for it, Inner City Press asked what the next steps in the investigation of the killing of seven peacekeepers in Darfur would be, given that Tanzania has said it is sending a team. DeLaurentis said that was right, but that he did not yet know the next steps. Watch this site.

   

On Darfur Killings, Sudan Tells US Mission to the UN that Minni Minnawi Did It, UNAMID Should Notify

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 16 – Tuesday as the UN Security Council met about Syria, Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman went into the Council suite to talk about Darfur and the seven Tanzanian peacekeepers killed there on July 13.

Afterward he exclusively told Inner City Press he had made three points “to the Americans” about the killings. First, that Sudan denies responsibility and blames instead the SLA Minni Minnawi rebels group. Second, that Sudan intends to hold them accountable. And third, that UNAMID should give notice to the Sudan Army before traveling.

  Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman said the Army has a good sense of which rebel groups are where; he also said that sometimes the peacekeepers don't fight back to defend themselves. (There was a case where weapons and vehicles were taken without a fight.)

  On July 15, Inner City Press asked UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky if Tanzania's army spokesman was correct that UNAMID is “under Chapter VI” of the UN Charter, or rather Chapter VII, what the purpose of the traveling had been and if any vehicles were taken.

On July 16 Nesirky returned with these answers: UNAMID is under Chapter VII (contrary to the reported quotes of the Tanzanian army spokesman); it was a “routine confidence building patrol” and one vehicle was stolen, others later recovered.

When US Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo emerged from the lengthy Council session to take questions, she understandably focused on Syria, but then read an answer from notes to a seemingly pre-arranged question about a Panamanian search of a ship and North Korea sanctions. No Sudan question was taken, or read-out given, as was also the case after Monday afternoon's briefing by Dmitry Titov and consultations on the Darfur killings. UNAMID Troop Contributing Countries meet on July 18. Watch this site.

  

Susan Rice Says Abyei Mandate Is Now Clear, Sudan Denies Chad Is In Darfur

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 29 -- In Abyei after the Ngok Dinka paramount chief was killed by the Misseriya, along with a UN peacekeeper from the UNISFA mission, South Sudan Ambassador Francis Deng told Inner City Press thatthe UN wasn't implementing its protection of civilians mandate.

  Deng, a former UN official and also the brother of the paramount chief, told Inner City Press that the UNISFA force commander told him that it was his understanding the mandate concerned protecting civilians from the Sudanese Army, not from non state actors like the Misseriya nomads.

  Inner City Press repeatedly asked the UN about this, but has run into difficulties because the head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous outright refuses to answer its questions. (On May 29 he refused again, concerning the 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012 by 41st and 391st Battalions of the Congolese Army, with which the UN continues to work; video here).

  After the UN Security Council on Wednesday adopted a US-drafted resolution extended the mandate of UNISFA,click here for the text of the resolution put online by Inner City Press just after the vote, Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice about Deng's comments and the UN's mandate.

  In a longer answer transcribed by the US Mission, see below, Ambassador Rice said that "We discussed in our consultations on the topic of UNIFSA a couple weeks ago the question of whether there was any ambiguity in the mandate about the nature and scope of the protection of civilians requirement. The Secretariat affirmed that it is their understanding and, indeed, it is clear to UNIFSA that indeed protection of civilians means protection of civilians against a threat from wherever it may materialize."

  The Secretariat means Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations. While Ameerah Haq of the UN Department of Field Support gave a long, suprisingly candid answer to Inner City Press' questions about the use of "soft skin" vehicles by the UN Mission in South Sudan, including in an incident in which five Indian peacekeepers were killed in Jonglei State, the military mandate and rules of engagement question should be answered by Herve Ladsous. But when?

  After Ambassador Rice left the stakeout, and much of the press corps also left to go hear Ladsous, Inner City Press stayed and asked Sudanese Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman a question it also asked Rice: are Chadian forces inside Sudan, chasing rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement through Darfur into Southern Kordofan?

  Sudan's Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman said no, Chad is a "friendly country" but Sudan's army can take care of its business (as it perceives it). He criticized "a few Council members" for blocking any statement on rebel abuses in Abu Karshola. And he told Inner City Press that the US' blocking of the Islamic African Relief Association in the UN's NGO Committee was because of the group's name. We'll see.

Here's the US Mission's transcript:

Inner City Press: On Abyei, South Sudan ambassador Francis Deng had said that he spoke to the force commander of UNIFSA who didn’t understand it to be his duty to protect civilians from the Misseriya, only from governmental forces. And he said that the written mandate is clear, but that there seems to be some problem in implementing it. Do you think that this resolution will actually lead to the kind of incident that targeted the paramount chief or that targets people in Abyei? And also, there’s a report of Chad having pursued JEM rebels through Darfur into Southern Kordofan. I don’t know if that is something the U.S. is aware of. Do you think it’s actually happening? Are you aware of that?

Ambassador Rice: I can’t comment on the latter allegation. But let me say with respect to the UNIFSA mandate—first of all, the United States very strongly supports UNIFSA, and we’re grateful for the very valuable contributions that Ethiopia and other contributors have made to that mission. And we’re pleased that among the provisions of resolution 2104 is the expansion of UNIFSA such that it will be able to carry out not only its responsibilities in Abyei but support the Joint Border Verification Monitoring Mechanism.

We discussed in our consultations on the topic of UNIFSA a couple weeks ago the question of whether there was any ambiguity in the mandate about the nature and scope of the protection of civilians requirement. The Secretariat affirmed that it is their understanding and, indeed, it is clear to UNIFSA that indeed protection of civilians means protection of civilians against a threat from wherever it may materialize. Nevertheless, we thought it wise to take the opportunity of the mandate renewal to underscore that and make plain that the Council’s expectations are, as you will see in the mandate, that protection of civilians entails protection no matter what the source of the violence against them.

On South Sudan's Oil Cut Off Charges, Sudan Shows ICP Denial, Rice Tells ICP It's Started Flowing Again; UN on Darfur: See No Evil

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 23, updated twice -- Amid charges by South Sudan that Khartoum is responsible for a cut off in the flow of oil for export and sale, Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman arrived at the UN Security Council Thursday morning, some 20 minutes after US Ambassador Susan Rice.

Update: leaving the meeting, Ambassador Rice told Inner City Press it is the US' understanding the oil has started to flow again. She emphasized: started.

  Inner City Press asked him about the oil flow dispute. Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman opened a file folder and showed Inner City Press a series of formal documents.

  First was a letter from Sudan's Minister of Petroleum to his counterpart in Juba, saying that the claims of Sudanese governmental involvement in the cut off pumping and flow were false.

  Next was what Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman said was the signed agreement about responding to the "technical issues" which led to the cut off; he said that a consortium of oil companies, not the government, was responsible.

Update: after the meeting, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Inner City Press that the technical issue was one of water: too much water in the oil, which could corrode the pipes.

  The Council's topic on Thursday morning was Sudan and South Sudan, as well as Abyei. On Wednesday, the UN sent Inner City Press a belated answer from Herve Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations to question asked by Inner City Press the previous week:

Subject: Regarding your question on Sudan
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, May 22, 2013 at 5:50 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

In response to your recent question on reports of the Chadian air force bombing positions inside Darfur and on whether Chadian troops have crossed into Sudan:

On 18 May, a patrol from the joint African Union-United Nations mission conducted an assessment mission to Bamina, North Darfur, where an attack on Justice and Equality Movement-Sudan members took place. No military or armed elements were observed in the area.

  So was JEM lying? Or was the UN late? Watch this site.

Exclusive: Sudan Meets With, Gives New May 3 Letter to, UNSC President Asking for Action on "Slaughter" in Abu Karshola, North Kordofan

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, May 3 -- After the war in Southern Kordofan spread into Umm Rawaba in North Kordofan, on May 1 Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Inner City Press he had written to the UN Security Council asking them to condemn the attack.

Inner City Press has obtained Sudan's April 30 letter and puts it online, here. Inner City Press has also obtained Sudan's new May 3 letter and, also exclusively, puts it online here.

  Inner City Press on May 1 asked US Ambassador Susan Rice about Sudan's request for a Council press statement. Rice told Inner City Press, with some sarcasm, "Like we've had so many statements recently."

  Two days later, at 5 pm on Friday, May 3 Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman came to meet the Security Council president for May, Kodjo Menan of Togo, to press the point forward.

  Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Inner City Press one point was double standards. The Security Council members express concern about violations of human rights elsewhere but, he said, in Abu Karshola dozens of civilians were "slaughtered;" a man was put on a table, cut into pieces.

  An article attached to Sudan's May 3 letter gets into details -- the "looting... of personal cell phones," analogizing the attack to those of Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army.

  Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman said there were six thousand people held as "human shields." He said the attacks have the goal of unraveling agreements made between Sudan and South Sudan, and undermining the talks with the SPLM-North in Addis Ababa. That, he said, you'd think the Security Council would care about.

  There are of course other issues, many of them. But do they mean the Security Council does and says nothing about this? What does that say about the Council? Watch this site.

Footnote: Inner City Press also asked Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman about the improbably named Telephone Kuku; Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman said he was just released, and has more right to speak for the Nuba of Southern Kordofan than anybody. Speak by Telephone? Watch this site.

On N. Kordofan Attack, Susan Rice Tells ICP that UNSC Statement May Be Unlikely, No Member Request

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 -- After the war in Southern Kordofan was expanded to Umm Rawaba in North Kordofan, Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Inner City Press he had written to the UN Security Council asking them to condemn the attack.

  On Wednesday Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice about it. She stopped and said, with some sarcasm, "Like we've had so many statements recently." The Council had been preparing a Presidential Statement when Sudan and South Sudan reached the Matrix of Implementation of their agreements.

  Russia proposed a minimalist press statement congratulating the parties; the US position was that more of the narrative and outstanding issues should be included. And so, as often happens on Syria as well, no statement at all. And this time?

  On April 29, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman raised the attack on Umm Rawaba in North Kordofan to the Council, and asked for sanctions on the rebels. 

  Afterward Inner City Press asked UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant what he thought. He said the UK would not in principle oppose sanctions on some rebels, but the relative balance with what the government has been doing would have to be taken into account.

  Meanwhile at Wednesday's UN noon briefing Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky if the UNMISS mission in South Sudan agreed with the government in Juba that the recent deadly attack on UN peacekeepers was by the David Yau Yau rebels.

  Inner City Press also asked if Ban's envoy Hilde Johnson had spoken with the government about their amnesty offer to rebels, including the Yau Yau rebels.

  One might have thought the UN would have said, including publicly, that amnesty could NOT cover the killing of peacekeepers. But there was no immediate answer. Watch this site.

Sudan Trashes Peacekeepers for Handing Over IDPs &Guns in Darfur, Ladsous No Answers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 29 -- The UN in Darfur claims to still be “investigating” why its peacekeepers handed over more than 30 internally displaced people to kidnappers back in March.

  But in the Security Council on Monday, Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman brought up not on the handing over of civilians, but also UNAMID handing over of weapons and vehicles to the rebels “without a fight.”

  Listening to Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman but not responding to the issue was UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous. He has thus presided over numerous failures at DPKO on which he refuses to answer questions.

  On April 25 alone, or with spokesman Kieran Dwyer, video here, Ladsous refused to answer Inner City Press questions about Mali (who will disarm the MNLA?), Western Sahara (why does he accept Moroccan license plates on MINURSO vehicles?), Cote d'Ivoire (why is he proposing a drone with no approval?) and the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, his partners.

  On that, Ladsous has previously refused Inner City Press questions on November 27, December 7 and December 18. So will he explain the hand over of guns, vehicles and IDPs as hostages? Watch this site.

  Last week in the General Assembly Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman trashed a Temple University professor who has spoken about Darfur, Molefi Kete Asante. It wasn't clear who had set up the panels. We aim to have more on this.