By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 20, updated -- Amid reports of ethnic cleansing in Southern Kordofan as well as Abyei, the UN Security Council assembled in its chamber at 10 am on Monday for a briefing by video from Addis Ababa by mediator Thabo Mbeki and UN Mission in Sudan chief Haile Menkerios.
After a delay, Mbeki appeared on screen to describe a just-signed agreement on Abyei, and predict that one will be reached on Southern Kordofan. Ethiopian troops will be sent into Abyei, after Security Council authorization of the deployment and, it seems, an understanding about “Somalia-style” rules of engagement.
After the briefing, the Ambassador of Sudan, following by the South Sudan representative, came to the stakeout to take Press questions. Inner City Press asked the National Congress Party's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman about his statement that humanitarian aid to Southern Kordofan “might” be restored shortly -- was this an admission that it has been cut off, and food used as a weapon?
He blamed it on the SPLA, and said that they had tried to install Al Hilu “who lost the election” as governor of South Kordofan. Video here.
Moments later, the representative of Southern Sudan Ezekiel Lol Gatkouth told Inner City Press that Ahmed Harun the supposed winner of the Southern Kordofan election, which the UN praised, doesn't even come from Southern Kordofan, has fled to El Obeid and “should be in the Hague” for war crimes. Video here.
Since the UN has in fact offered helicopter flights to Harun, who is indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, Inner City Press asked the South Sudan representative if he thought the UN should arrest Harun, rather than flying him around. “He should be in the Hague,” he repeated.
Ezekiel Lol Gatkouth at stakeout, Haroun not shown
With these deep disagreements, it is difficult to know what to make of the 10 page Abyei agreement announced with such fanfare by Mbeki and the UNMIS' Menkerios. He has been in Addis for day, meanwhile UNMIS has been “categorically denying” it did anything wrong on Southern Kordofan. This UN's reflexive denial undermines its credibility.
In the middle of the Security Council debate, Inner City Press ran through the UN's garage to the day's noon briefing. But neither of the two Sudan questions put to Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky got answered. Confirm or deny The Guardian / Observer's report that UNMIS in Kordofan lost control of its weapons -- Nesirky said he'd look into it.
In Darfur, over the weekend Inner City Press asked the spokesperson both for UNAMID and the UN World Food Program to confirm or deny a report that the UN stopped delivering food to IDPs in El Geneina. Neither responded, and neither did Nesirky at Monday's noon briefing.
And now the UN peacekeeping presence in Abyei is being jettisoned for a different one, from Ethiopia. And in Southern Kordofan? Watch this site.
Footnote: Ezekiel Lol Gatkouth presented to Inner City Press this timeline: South Sudan will formally declare independence on July 9, followed by Security Council vote-in as a state on July 13, and General Assembly on July 14. We'll be here.
Update of 4 pm: Later, this arrived:
Subject: Your question on Darfur and Sudan
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 3:45 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com
The World Food Programme has confirmed that the food distributions to El Geneina are on track, and any reports suggesting that such distributions have stopped are inaccurate.
As for any reports of UNMIS losing control of heavy weaponry, UNMIS does not have heavy weapons. Its weaponry includes AK-47s and armoured personnel carriers.
The first answer, then, has the UN denying in entirety a story (with quotes) from Radio Dabanga. The second denied a story in The Guardian about Southern Kordofan, on which WFP has separately told Inner City Press that
“On Kadugli, we still have not been able to obtain access to our warehouse. However we have received assurances from the local authorities that our food is intact.”
And so it goes at the UN.
