By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, September 4 -- As Sudan's Omar al Bashir government increasing bombing in Southern Kordofan, pushes its attacks into Blue Nile State and outlaws the main opposition party, a high UN official, seemingly living in a parallel universe, has offered praise to the government.
Ban Ki-moon's special adviser on sexual violence and conflict Margot Wallstrom on September 2 issued a press release praising the Sudanese government for offering a pardon to a journalist who reported on rape, gushing about "an important signal of respect for freedom of expression by the Sudanese Government."
Like with the pardon in Darfur of the five sheikhs almost turned over to the government for torture by UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari, the pardon was locally viewed as related to the Eid al-Fitr holiday ending Ramadan, not to any change of policy by the National Congress Party.
But these UN officials ask the media to cover their praise of Sudanese authorities, just as their bombing of civilians in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile State increases, and Bashir's National Congress Party outlaws the SPLM and arrests its officials.
Some might see this as just a failure to coordinate, a failure of the supposed "One UN" policy.
Others however see a pattern of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon being pushed to appoint officials and then failing to oversee them; they periodically see in the news an opportunity to increase their visibility or "brand" and issue press releases from parts unknown, which Ban Ki-moon's office in term does not answer for.
Amid serious charges of sexual abuse against UN peacekeepers in Haiti, Ban has said nothing. He's been in Kiribati. Ban's new head of peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous, was a public face of the coup against Aristide which the African Union called unconstitutional; nothing has been heard or seen from Ladsous.
UN Peacekeeping's Department of Field Support has said it provides human rights training to the UN-funded AMISON mission in Somalia. AMISON troops recent opened fire on a vehicle and killed a Malaysia journalist -- see above -- but nothing has been said by the UN. Watch this site.
