By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 22, updated -- With Darfur the topic in the UN Security Council on Friday morning, Inner City Press asked Council diplomats about Ibrahim Gambari's new double job, replacing Djibril Bassole as Darfur mediator while keeping his UNAMID job.
“It's only for three months,” UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant told Inner City Press. “There are still some issues to work out with [Djibril] Bassole, who wanted to stay involved. And if the state of emergency is not lifted, there is not Darfur Peace Process.”
South Africa's Permanent Representative Baso Sangqu also told Inner City Press that the state of emergency should be lifted, but was critical of setting conditions before the Darfur Peace Process could begin. Let it begin, he said, on the ground in Darfur.
Some of the rebel leaders who don't live in Darfur, it was implied, might be isolated by such a process.
Lyall Grant also said that Gambari's “contract expires at the end of the year.” Inner City Press went to the UN's noon briefing and asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm this, and that Gambari is the new joint mediator on Darfur.
Nesirky said he couldn't confirm or comment on either, that he would look into it. (He also said the UN cannot confirm events in Southern Kordofan, including if any of its peacekeepers have in fact left the war torn area -- while activists are by contrast calling for limited intervention, click here for that.)
Later when Gambari emerged from the Council, after a “bilateral” meeting with Brazil's Permanent Representative Viotti, he graciously agreed to answer questions at the stakeout. Inner City Press asked about continued aerial bombing by the government in Darfur.
Gambari called it unacceptable but said that in Darfur from January to May 2011 there were 400 deaths due to armed conflict and that “in South Sudan there were four times that many.”
He noted that several Darfur rebels leaders are not in Sudan, specifying that Abdel Wahid al Nur, once in Paris, is now in Kampala. And what about Khalil Ibrahim in Tripoli?
Inner City Press asked Gambari if he is “the new Bassole.” He laughed and said that because Bassole had been named foreign minister of Burkina Faso -- this happened after a mutiny against president Blaise Campoure -- Bassole could not “practically” remain as Darfur mediator, due to “accountability.”
Gambari said he is the mediator “ad interim.” He declined to comment on the arrest of SPLM leaders in Nyala in South Darfur or on whether the JEM rebels are fighting with SPLM-North in Southern Kordofan. So how many death, especially of civilians, due to armed conflict have there been in Southern Kordofan? We'll have more on this.
From the UN's transcript of its July 22, 2011 noon briefing:
Inner City Press: just now in front of the Security Council during the Darfur briefing, it was said that Mr. Gambari is going to be now taking over from Mr. Bassolé for three months. And one Permanent Representative said that’s because his contract expires at the end of the year. What’s the UN’s understanding of whether he is going to be wearing those two hats and for how long, and is it true that his contract, I guess UN or UN-AU contract, expires at the end of the year?
Spokesperson Nesirky: I have to look into that, I don’t know.
Inner City Press: But is he the new mediator, Doha process mediator?
Spokesperson Nesirky : The answer I just gave you applies to everything you said.
And five hours later there was still no information from the UN Office of the Spokesperson, even after what Gambari himself said...
