On Sudan Sudan, UN Johnson Tells ICP Expulsion of Rights Official Final, Copter Haze

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 11 -- Back in November 2012 South Sudan expelled a UN human rights officer. The UN spoke up, briefly, but has said little since. 

  When the UN's envoy to Juba Hilde Johnson spoke Monday across the street from the UN, Inner City Press went to ask about this and about the four Russian pilots killed when South Sudan shot down a UN helicopter in December. Video here.

  Russia has the presidency of the Security Council this month, and on March 4 Inner City Press asked its Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin about the copter.

   He said he would meet with Johnson on March 6, and would hope for answers before the South Sudan session of the Council later in the month.

   After a slide presentation by Johnson to a packed house at the International Peace Institute, Inner City Press asked Johnson the two questions, about the Persona Non Grata (PNG) rights officer and the helicopter and its black box.

   On the helicopter, Johnson said among other things the Russians were happy, at least with regard to the black box -- that is NOT Inner City Press' understanding -- and that the UN's own board of inquiry should be finished by mid March, that is, before the Council session.

  South Sudan's investigation, she said, can extended to May 10.

   Johnson said the human rights officer hadn't been “PNG-ed,” but rather told to leave the country. She said while it was raised, the decision will not be reversed. So does the UN does accept it? Notably, the UN is continuing to push to be into Sudan to the north sanctions expert Ghassan Schbley. What's the difference?

Footnote: also at the IPI session and on the video was a question by Agence France Presse's Tim Witcher. Inner City Press had been informed just before Johnson's presentation by UN Security that Witcher and Reuters had filed a frivolous complaint concerning a verbal disagreement on March 8 about AFP acting, once again, as a pass-through for UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous, this time on 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, DPKO's partner.

  Witcher's question was about the UNMISS mission not directly supporting the SPLA against the Yau Yau rebels. (Some have concluded, Witcher and so AFP support anything Ladsous wants to do, and so wonder if this question meant Ladsous who favors drones and intervention brigades with other people's soldiers would like UNMISS to directly take one David Yau Yau.) 

  Johnson spoke of tagging along to protect civilians, while fighting of which the UN has foreknowledge begins. Is this the UN? Watch this site.

UN's Two Tales of Sudan “Simulated” Attack on Darfur Convoy, DRC Contrasted

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 14 – The day before the UN Security Council adopted its resolution on the Sudan Sanctions Panel of Experts, Inner City Press published a leaked draft, including a paragraph “condemning the simulated attack by Sudanese army helicopters on a UNAMID patrol to which the Panel of Experts arms expert was attached.”

  At the February 13 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked for more information on this “simulated attack by Sudanese army helicopters on a UNAMID patrol,” since a search of the press releases on the UNAMID mission's web site found no mention of it.

 A day later, after the Council's vote, the UN sent the following to Inner City Press:

Subject: Your question on UNAMID
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 12:41 PM
To: Matthew [dot] Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Regarding your question on a shooting incident last year in Darfur, the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur has the following to say:

On 26 September 2012, two Sudanese Armed Forces helicopters flew at low altitude over a UNAMID patrol that was returning from an assessment mission to Thabit (North Darfur). The authorities claimed the aircraft mistook the patrol for an armed movement convoy. The patrol, which was clearly displaying UNAMID/United Nations insignia, returned to base safely.

The mission was a pre-planned verification patrol that a Panel of Experts member availed himself of the opportunity to join.

UNAMID vigorously protested to Government military authorities in El Fasher and Khartoum over the incident.

The incident is reflected in paragraph 31 of the Report of the Secretary-General on UNAMID dated 16 October 2012.

  Inner City Press went back to this report, and found this in Paragraph 31: “on 26 September, two Sudanese Armed Forces attack helicopters flew at low altitude over a UNAMID patrol that was returning from an assessment mission near Thabit. The authorities claimed that the aircraft mistook the patrol for an armed movement convoy. The patrol returned to base safely. UNAMID protested to the Government over the incident.”

  So UNAMID's October 2012 report to the Council did not mention that there was a member of the Panel of Experts with the convoy; it did not mention that patrol “was clearly displaying UNAMID/United Nations insignia,” not the “vigor” with which UNAMID now says it protested.

  Since UNAMID never put out even a press release (when for example its sister mission MONUSCO in the Congo on January 30 devoted a full press release to denouncing a publication by Inner City Press, but then wouldn't point to a single factual mistake) leads one to question how “vigorous” the protest was.

  Stepping back, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous appears to have little consistency. It has become under Ladsous, as at least one DPKO whistleblower puts it, “pure politics.” Watch this site.

UN Sudan Sanctions Draft Slams Visa Denial, Darfur Killings, Bashir to Libya?

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 13 – When Sudan denied entry to UN sanctions expert Schbley, saying he was on a blacklist due to work on the UN's Somalia / Eritrea sanctions panel, Colombia's Ambassador Nestor Osorio who then chaired the UN Security Council's Sudan Sanctions Committee told Inner City Press it was an “outrage” that would be reversed.

Now with Colombia off the Security Council and Argentina having come on and taken over the chair for the Sudan Sanctions Committee, Schbley is still blocked.

This week began closed door consultations on a draft resolution to extend the experts' mandate. Inner City Press has exclusively obtained the draft and is putting it online here. At Operative Paragraph 11, the draft

“Calls on the Government of Sudan to remove all restrictions, limitations and bureaucratic impediments imposed on the work of the Panel of Experts, including by issuing timely multiple-entry visas to all members of the Panel of Experts for the duration of its mandate, and by waiving the requirement of Darfur travel permits for said Panel members.”

  Some on the Council see this as going too far, into the sovereignty of Sudan. “Visas are a sovereign decision,” a non-Western Council member told Inner City Press on February 12. Another said, “The US throws drafts like this down and expects us to just accept them.”

  A third Council member noted that the US has extended the time to negotiate the d

draft. But where will it come out? The draft also has the Security Council

“Further deploring the forcible detention and intimidation by the National Intelligence and Security Services of members of the Panel of Experts, condemning the simulated attack by Sudanese army helicopters on a UNAMID patrol to which the Panel of Experts arms expert was attached; and deploring the Government of Sudan’s refusal to grant admittance to a member of the Panel of Experts, as set out in paragraphs 20 to 24 of the Final Report of the Panel of Experts.”

   Getting more specific, the draft cites Protection of Civilians, the topic of the Security Council's all-day, late-night debate on February 12:

“Urges the Government of Sudan to respond to the Committee requests on measures put in place to protect civilians in various parts of Darfur, including those affected by new displacements; investigations conducted and accountability measures undertaken for killings of civilians and perpetrators of human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law (including notably the killings of civilians in Abu Zereiga in June 2011, Hashaba in August 2012 and Sigili in November 2012)”

  Meanwhile some report that already indicted President Omar al Bashir plans to travel not only to Chad but also Libya. Watch this site.

On Sudan, 3 UNSC Meetings, No Outcome, DPKO Blind to Ansar Al-Dine in Darfur?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 7 – Sudan is the biggest or at least most frequent item on the agenda of the UN Security Council. Yet after more than two hours of consultations by the Council on Thursday about three separate Sudanese issues, there was no outcome, and no summary.

  Inner City Press asked UK Deputy Permanent Representative Philip Parham if there was any progress in getting aid into Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states. He said no, “but we keep pushing.”

  Inner City Press asked a UN official present what on the issue(s) is happening. “Nothing,” he said.

  It seems that most of the Sudan and South Sudan issues are on hold, with the Council deferring or wanting to defer to the African Union. A pro-Juba source told Inner City Press, “the AU has to prove that its bite is at least somewhat similar to its bark.”

  A non-Permanent Security Council member told Inner City Press that there might, at some later undefined date, be a Council press statement about the issues discussed Thursday morning, with the exception of Sudan's ongoing blocking or “blacklisting” of UN sanctions finance expert Schbley. 

  But the Council couldn't even put out a press statement for the humanitarian pledging conference on Syria: will it on this?

   While February's Council president Kim Sook of South Korea held an informative February 4 press conference about the month's program of work, it is after such closed door consultations that a stakeout by the Council presidency is particularly useful. This was raised at the February 4 briefing by the Free UN Coalition for Access, as a request for stakeouts.

   Perhaps one will be combined with the afternoon's Yemen consultations.

  Repeating a question it asked at the day's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud about the Ansar Al-Dine rebels from Mali been seen in Darfur. “I heard the rumor,” Araud said.

  At the noon briefing, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky answered Inner City Press that there are reports and rumors both ways, that the Malian rebels are there and that they are not, and the UNAMID peacekeeping mission has been unable to verify either.

  UNAMID spends more than $1 billion a year, and any flight of rebels from Mali into Sudan would clearly impact on international peace and security. What is UNAMID and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations doing? Watch this site.

Kim Sook Says M23 & Addis Can Be Linked, Must Digest Sudan

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 4 -- Much of the UN Security Council's work is behind closed doors in consultations, and it often falls to the month's Council president to summarize what is discussed.

  February's president Kim Sook of South Korea held his press conference on the Program of Work on Monday, and Inner City Press asked him about consultations this week on the Sudans and Eastern Congo. Video here, from Minute 15:30.

  On Sudan sanctions, Inner City Press asked if any progress has been made in getting the Expert Schbley into the country. Sudan says he is "blacklisted" for work "against Sudan" while working on the Somalia and Eritrea sanctions committee.

  Kim Sook replied that the session will be a briefing, with some weeks then to digest it. The Group of Experts is slated, on the Program of Work, to have its mandate renewed on February 13. We'll be there.

   Inner City Press asked about the relation between the M23 talks in Kampala and the failed talks on "peace enforcement" in Addis Ababa, which an involved diplomat told Inner City Press was "blown up" not only by the UN's failure to consult, but also by its anonymous briefing to embedded journalists saying it would be signed.

   Kim Sook replied that while the two issues can technically be addressed separately or "microscopically," on the ground things are mixed. He said that either topic or both can be brought up by any Council member.

  The two briefers will be Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff and Personal Envoy Susana Malcorra and head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous. 

  Malcorra is hard-driving, for example defending the redaction of information from Charles Petrie's report to Ban about Sri Lanka.

  Ladsous on the other hand refuses to answer Press questions, apparently insulted that he was asked about the relation between his long service of the French foreign ministry and his new Peacekeeping position.

  Many in the UN system get asked similar questions -- for example the American Jeffrey Feltman when he came to the UN from the US State Department, and also Ban Ki-moon on issues impacting the Korean peninsula.

  But both of these officials have answered that question, however tersely, while continuing to answer other questions about their work.

  Ladsous is different - he simply refuses to answer other question, even going so far as to order his spokesman to seize the UNTV stakeout microphone to avoid a question from Inner City Press about 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, video here.

  Kim Sook will be at that stakeout a lot this coming month. 

  On Monday, Inner City Press on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access thanked him in advance for his stakeouts, expressing a hope that these occur after most or all informal consultations, as was the case in January under the Presidency of Masood Khan of Pakistan. We'll see.

  The first, "traditional" question (video here, from Minute 7:55) was about North Korea, with the questioner predicting a nuclear test "in the next few days if not sooner." What could be sooner than that? We'll cover it, as we did the January resolution, here. Watch this site.

At UN, UNviewable Debate Plays Bait & Switch With Stiglitz, Partners in Decay

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 4 -- The UN wants to play in the big leagues in terms of communication, which is fine. But there are mounting questions concerning how and if this is being carried out, and at what sacrifice.

  Monday afternoon at the UN illustrates these questions. 

  The UN Department of Public Information had promoted a debate on development and good governance, set for 5 pm in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium.

  This "Academic Impact" debate has to have featured Joseph Stiglitz, billed as "Professor of economics, Columbia University, and recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences."

   But at 5:10 pm there was no Stiglitz. The moderator, Maher Nasser of DPI's Outreach Division, described a process of point and counter-point that would add up to 30 minutes. So Inner City Press went to cover the meeting of the Sudan Sanctions committee of the UN Security Council.

  While staking out that meeting, and ultimately speaking with the committee's chairperson about using "good offices" to try to resolve the blocking of one of the sanctions Experts, it should have been possible to follow the UNTV webcast of the debate.

  But also another DPI official, Stephane Dujarric, wrote on February 1 to the Free UN Coalition on Access which raised the issue back in December, "Owing to technical issues that we working to resolve, only some of the live meetings are viewable on iOs devices (iPhones, iPads)."

  But the platform FUNCA complained of is the increasingly ubiquitous Android, on which the live webcast still does not work.

  And so Inner City Press after speaking with the Sudan Sanctions chairperson ran back to the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium, where the debate was still ongoing. 

  By now, one of the three non-Stiglitz panelists was leaving: Susan Woodward of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York."

   Nasser took two more questions from the Internet -- good -- but then distinguished between those in the room from the beginning of the event, or who came in later. 

  Who did the bait and switch? And why can't DPI, with its budget, get its webcast working on a platform as ubiquitous as Android?

The session ended with a mock vote, on whether good governance helps development. But the question was posed in such a way that many in the audience groaned and asked for it to be rephrased.

  In this, it was reminiscent of an event in the same auditorium in late December, a general meeting of DPI's "main" (or only, according to Dujarric) partner, the UN Correspondents Association. 

 A 15 minute video, by FUNCA.info, is online here.

  At that meeting, right after a vote was taken rejecting naming and shaming those behind on dues, the president of UNCA denounced a particular member by name. What's the use of voting?

  Since then, including the same day of this UN Academic Impact debate, UNCA "leaders" told down substantive FUNCA flyers, while DPI for now allows UNCA -- and only UNCA -- to maintain a glassed-in bulletin board on which for months in 2012 UNCA displayed a five page letter denouncing the Press. Ah, free speech.

   Now there's talk of UNCA, under challenge, belatedly moving to amend its Constitution. But it already violated its Constititution. Dujarric on January 17 linked UNCA to the League of Nations. And it appears it should and will go the way of the League of Nations. Watch this site.

Footnote: one shame was that of the two remaining debaters, it was a return by Jomo Sundaram, previously of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and now Assistant Director-General at FAO.

   Earlier on Monday Jomo joked to Inner City Press that there are no similarly tough questions at FAO. But here at the UN, no questions allowed - no Monday evening, and prospectively not Wednesday February 6 at noon. UN Department of PRIVATE Information? Can or will the new guy turn it around? Watch this site.

After Demarche, Sudan Still Blocks UN Expert Schbley, UNSC Reaction?

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, December 13 -- A week after Sudan made public its exclusion of the new Expert on Sudan Sanctions appointed last month by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Ghassan Schbley of the United States, on December 13 it reiterated its "blacklisting," Sudan's Ambassador told Inner City Press.

   After the Security Council heard a briefing on Darfur from International Criminal Court prosecutor Bensouda, Inner City Press asked Council president Loulicki of Morocco if he had "demarched" Sudan.

  Loulichki told Inner City Press, "I was asked to do it and I did. Now I will report to the Council, before anything else."

  Moments later, Inner City Press asked Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman about the meeting, if Schbley is still blacklisted.

 Yes, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Inner City Press, he is still on the blacklist until he reconsiders his positions against the interests of the Republic of Sudan.

  So now what? Back on December 7, US Mission's Deputy Spokesperson Payton L. Knopf told Inner City Press, "unfettered access for Panels of Experts is a fundamental principle. It is unacceptable that Sudan or any country would prevent a member of a Panel of Experts from conducting his or her work as mandated by the Security Council."

  Now that Ambassador Susan Rice has removed her name from contention for US Secretary of State, this could be a focus.

  A day later, another Security Council diplomat told Inner City Press, "The turning back of the Expert at Khartoum airport despite his being in possession a valid visa was totally unacceptable, particularly since the reason given was that the Expert had been ‘blacklisted’ because of his previous work on the Somalia/Eritrea Monitoring Group.

"This was raised at the Sudan Sanctions consultations and it was agreed that the Council President should express concern to the Sudanese Permanent Representative on behalf of the Council and seek his assurance that there would be no repeat."

  But now Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman has said Schbley is still on the blacklist, until he "reconsiders" his positions against the interests of the Republic of Sudan.

  Inner City Press asked when Loulichki will inform the Council of this answer.

Footnote: while ICC prosecutor Bensouda did not do a UN TV stakeout, Inner City Press asked her if there are any new investigations of the M23 or its supporters, beyond Bosco. No, she replied, "not at this time." See above - and watch this site.

As Sudan Reiterates Block on UN Expert Schbley, US Reaction, Moroccan Demarche

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 7 -- The day after Sudan defended its exclusion of the new Expert on Sudan Sanctions appointed last month by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Ghassan Schbley of the United States, on Friday the US Mission to the UN responded.

  The US Mission's Deputy Spokesperson Payton L. Knopf told Inner City Press, "unfettered access for Panels of Experts is a fundamental principle. It is unacceptable that Sudan or any country would prevent a member of a Panel of Experts from conducting his or her work as mandated by the Security Council."

   After Inner City Press first reported on the blocking and "interrogation" of Schbley by Sudan, it emerged from closed door Security Council consultations that this month's Council president, Morocco's Permanent Representative Loulichki, has been directed to "demarche" Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman on the topic.

   But does that mean Loulichki will order Sudan to let Schbley in? And if so, would Sudan do so?

   Inner City Press asked Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, who expanded on his Mission's letter which Inner City Presspublished yesterday. He said that Schbley has been on a Sudanese "blacklist for six years," based on activities "against the interest of Sudan."

   But why then did Sudan give Schbley a visa, before not letting him in? This has yet to be answered, and at least one major non-Permanent member of the Council tells Inner City Press this is the key question.

   Others want to know which incoming Security Council member will replace Nestor Osorio of Colombia as chair of the Sudan Sanctions Committee. 

   Pro-Khartoum sources snark to Inner City Press that Colombia was given the chair on Sudan and Iran sanctions because it is a supporter of US foreign policy, on these and more generally. These sources predict, admittedly without definitive knowledge, that the chair will go to like-minded South Korea.

   But what of Schbley and Loulichki's "demarche" of Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman? Watch this site.

As Sudan Blocks UN Sanctions Expert Schbley, Bryden Echo, Juba Parallel

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, December 6, updated with letter -- Sudan's relations with the UN and United States do not appear to be improving. The new Expert on Sudan Sanctions appointed last month by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Ghassan Schbley of the United States, was recently "interrogated" and denied entry into Sudan, sources exclusively tell Inner City Press.

  Schbley previously worked on the UN's Somalia and Eritrea sanctions, from which after complaints he and coordinator Matt Bryden were removed. Inner City Presswrote about this back in August 2012, here. 

   The sources tell Inner City Press that this history is one of the reasons Schbley was denied access by Sudan. They question why Ban Ki-moon thought the shift would work smoothly. But others wonder, why was Schbley given a visa if in fact he would be blocked?

Update: Inner City Press has obtained, and has put on its beta Google+ page, here, Sudan's "incident report."

Second Update: Morocco's Permanent Representative Loulichki, the Security Council president for December, told Inner City Press his mandate now is to "demarche" Sudan's Permanent Representative about the case -- and listen to further explanation. Other comments were sought, but seven hours later by press time were not received. Watch this site.

   Khartoum has other complaints about the implementation of Sudan sanctions, saying when the UN expert tried to check if the Justice and Equality Movement carried Gaddafi weapons into South Sudan, they weren't let in but hardly complained.

  Meanwhile, the Thursday morning Security Council session on Sudan and South Sudan, more specifically Abyei, came to very little. 

  The African Union will be briefed by Thabo Mbeki's High Level Implementation Panel on December 14, prior to another UN Security Council session on December 18. The six week "deadline" on Abyei has come and gone.

   South Sudan, too, has it problems with the UN, for having thrown out the UN's human rights expert. This is explained to Inner City Press by other sources as being based on an "attempted coup" in South Sudan, and the coming up of the name of the UN expert. Two were to be thrown out, which was reduced to one. But it is unlikely to be reversed. 

 And what is Hilde Johnson doing? What will the Council's Sudan Sanctions committee do about the blockage of Ghassan Schbley? Watch this site.