While Susan Rice Tells Inner City Press Sudan Glasnost “Would Be Nice,” Some Compare to US Reaction to Myanmar

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- When U,S Ambassador Susan Rice spoke to the press in front of the Security Council on Wednesday, her first topic was Mali.

   Inner City Press asked her about Sudan, about Omar al Bashir's announcement that political prisoners would be released. What's the US view, Inner City Press asked, of this supposed glasnost in Khartoum?

  “That would be nice,” Ambassador Rice said and smiled. Then she added the hope that the term political prisoner be defined as broadly for release as while being taken into custody.

  Also on Wednesday Fatou Bensouda the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, where Bashir has been indicted for genocide, is visiting the US State Department in Washington, meeting Stephen J. Rapp.

  One wonders if the UN not only partying with Bashir, but offering free flights to his fellow ICC indictee Ahmed Harun, will come up between Bensouda and Rapp.

  At a UN press conference on Tuesday, Inner City Press asked April's Security Council president Eugene Richard Gasana if he or Rwanda thought the Council should have given Sudan mediator Thabo Mbeki the press statement he asked for, praising the Sudans for the Implementation Matrix.

  Gasana said the relationship between the Security Council and African Union is improving. But if Mbeki favored a Council press statement for the Implementation Matrix, how much more so for actual releases of political prisoners?

  Forget glasnost - compare it to the West's reaction to Myanmar's releases, notwithstanding or ignoring the violence against Muslims in that country. A cynic or inciter might conclude that religion is the difference. Watch this site.

As UNSC Meets Mbeki on Sudan, No Statement, Nor onDarfur, Prodi Compared

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 27, updated -- After Thabo Mbeki and Abdulsalami Abubakar had a closed door interactive session with the UN Security Council about the Sudans on Wednesday morning, again no outcome was agreed to.

  The day after Sudan and South Sudan signed their Implementation Matrix, Russia proposed a short press statement of praise. 

  The US wanted something longer including criticism, for example on Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, or their long-pending draft Presidential Statement. Sudan's bragging, reported that morning by Inner City Press, was cited in the Council. In pique, there was no statement.

  And now, again, no statement. Inner City Press asked Russia's Vitaly Churkin if that meant the US draft PRST was still pending. Video here from Minute 5:49. 

  Churkin scoffed, and mentioned that under the current dynamic nothing would be possible to be adopted on Sudan -- or on Darfur, he said, a reference to the pending UK-drafted Presidential Statement.

Update: Mark Lyall Grant of the UK later confirmed to Inner City Press that the Darfur PRST "is being blocked."

  Another Western source, insisting on anonymity, countered that it was Churkin who “blew up the press elements” by saying Russia wouldn't agree to anything that didn't include a lifting of sanction and debt relief. Could this be hyperbole?

  While we'll wait for Russia's response on this -- and will publish it -- a senior UN official complained, it's hard to work for this Council, they won't offer praise even when you get something accomplished.

  That doesn't seem to apply to Romano Prodi in Mali, who has accomplished little but still gets praised. Is there a double standard? Watch this site.

Sudans' Implementation Matrix Sets Deadlines for Oil & Abyei, PRST Awaits?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 12 -- The actual “Implementation Matrix for Agreements” between Sudan and South Sudan which threw the UN Security Council into turmoil on March 12 is 16 pages long and puts many due dates off into the future.

Inner City Press has obtained a copy of the Matrix and puts it online here.

  The portion most reported in international media is point 9 of 9, on oil “and related economic matters.”

  In 14 days South Sudan is to instruct oil companies to re-establish oil production, and Sudan to re-establish processing and transportation. But the processing and transportation agreements won't be done for 150 days (Section 10.8).

  Also in 14 days, the UNISFA force commander is to report on withdrawals. On Tuesday, UN Secretary General named another (Ethiopian) force commander for the all Ethiopian UN Peacekeeping mission in Abyei.

  The Abyei Police Service is to be constituted in 30 days. A Joint Central Banks Committee is to be established in five days. Much longer term, it is said, Sudan will take all necessary action to reach the HIPC decision point, “consultations required with the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank” (Section 9.6).

  For the Joint Border Verification Mechanism, land will be allocated in GokMachar in 16 days, and in Malakal and Buram in a month.

  And if any of these things don't happen? Will another Presidential Statement or resolution be ready in the Council? Watch this site.