Amid Moves in Abyei, Sudan & US Disagree on Kordofan, Oil Fee Not on Agenda

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 31 -- While US Ambassador Susan Rice insisted Thursday that "all of the operative paragraphs" of the Security Council's Resolution 2046 on Sudan and South Sudan are mandatory under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, her Sudanese counterpart Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman disagreed ten minutes later.

  "No one can stop us" from combating rebels in our own territory, he said, especially when armed from outside the country. Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman cited the Geneva Conventions. 

 

  It seems unlikely that the US agrees with this; take for example its position on what the Syrian government is doing in Homs, Hama and Houla. 

  But in the Press Statement read out by the outgoing Azerbaijani President of the Council after Ambassador Rice spoke, there was no move to enforce or seek accountability for violations of Resolution 2046.

  This may simply reflect real politik, that while portions remain unfulfilled, South Sudan's then Sudan's pull out (mostly) from Abyei is more than was expected, and focus has shifted to Syria, if it was ever primarily on Sudan of late.

  This was reflected in the questions directed to Ambassador Rice after she spoke at the stakeout about Sudan: of the five first questions, by three journalists, four question were about Syria. When Inner City Press was called on, it asked about the Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile paragraphs of the Resolution 2046, and about financial issues.

  Strangely, given the importance of the oil transfer fee issue to the dispute between the Sudans, it does not appear to be a topic in Addis Ababa. Ambassador Rice said "my understanding is that in this round thus far they have not gotten into the oil issues, the revenue-sharing issues."

   When Inner City Press asked if the US would support reducing Sudan's external debt at the IMF, Ambassador Rice said "I'm not prepared to answer that at this stage."

  Sudan's Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman said more pointed that until they are agreements on security, South Sudanese oil cannot flow through Sudan. So the standoff continues.

Footnote: After the two stakeouts, Sudan complained that Ambassador Rice "broke protocol" by speaking at the stakeout before the President of the Council. (It may be that the President was moving slow: slow but sure, although he declined to take questions.)

  More substantively the Sudanese said they do not think Rice would ever do anything helpful for (North) Sudan. Given where Rice may be headed, they might want to hope that is not true.

Inner City Press recently asked a member of the Sudanese delegation why his country has not thought of running for a Security Council seat. (It would certainly make interesting news to report.) He shook his head and said the Sudanese have "too much pride," and would not be willing to bow down. And so it goes.

UN GA Removes Proposal Telling Ban Not to Undermine ICC, Sudan Still Objects

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 31, 2012 -- Even modest reforms die a quiet death in today's UN. This week's victim is a paragraph in a General Assembly resolution adopted about the International Criminal Court.

 The UN in Sudan has twice flown International Criminal Court indictee Ahmed Haroun into Abyei, and envoy Ibrahim Gambari earlier took photos with ICC indictee Omar al Bashir at a wedding reception for Idriss Deby and the daughter of Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal. (Inner City Press published the photos as found without notice of copyright on the Internet but has removed them after a complaint by a wire service that never wrote of their significance."

  Back on February 27, Inner City Press wrote a then-exclusive story about a paragraph in the draft ICC resolution directing Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to "refrain from... undermin[ing]" the ICC.

This was in Paragraph 5bis of the draft GA resolution on the ICC agreed by all 120 ICC state parties and obtained by Inner City Press. The languages, sources told Inner City Press, was put forward by Switzerland; the draft resolution was being facilitated by Japan.

The paragraph in late February read:

"5bis. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure, consistent with the existing UN policies and pursuant to the Relationship Agreement, that United Nations field presences and representatives, especially peacekeeping operations, special political missions, special envoys, special representatives and mediators, refrain from any action, including the use of resources, that could undermine the efforts of the International Criminal Court, and requests the Secretary-General to submit a report on the application of such policies for the consideration of the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session;"

    Then the process went underground. There were closed door meetings in the UN's North Lawn building; delegates told Inner City Pres of pushback and problems.

   When finally the resolution was adopted on May 29, the paragraph was done.  On his way up to the General Assembly Hall, passing the Security Council, Japanese Permanent Representative Nishida told Inner City Press there were still "small steps' forward in the resolution.

  Upstairs in the GA, Nishida emphasized instead paragraphs 6 and 11, which read in relevant part

6. Recalls article 3 of the Relationship Agreement according to which, with a view to facilitating the effective discharge of their respective responsibilities, the United Nations and the Court shall cooperate closely, whenever appropriate, with each other and consult each other on matters of mutual interest pursuant to the provisions of the Agreement and in conformity with the respective provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the Rome Statute as well as the need to respect each other’s status and mandate, and requests the Secretary-General to include information relevant to the implementation of article 3 of the Relationship Agreement in his report to be submitted pursuant to paragraph 11 of the present resolution...

11. Emphasizes the importance of the full implementation of all aspects of the Relationship Agreement, which forms a framework for close cooperation between the two organizations and for consultation on matters of mutual interest pursuant to the provisions of that Agreement and in conformity with the respective provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the Rome Statute...

  What a representative of a Permanent member of the Security Council told Inner City Press on May 31 was the "Gambari paragraph" got taken out. Another said that this year's ICC resolution, despite what Nishida said, was hardly different that last year's. 

  Asked for comment, a UK Mission spokesperson told Inner City Press that "the UK welcomes the adoption of today’s resolution on the Report of the ICC by consensus.  The UK was one of a wide range of cosponsors that included both states parties and non-states parties, and the resolution represents strong international support for international justice."

  And even so, Sudanese Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman spoke in the General Assembly and said Sudan does not consider the resolution binding on it, becuase it is not a member of the ICC and because the ICC Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, "is not neutral or impartial" and has "politicized justice."

   So even in watered down form, the resolution still drew this statement. So dies reform.

  On the other hand, as Inner City Press first reported, now well placed African Permanent Representatives are telling Inner City Press that Gambari came to New York and said he was quitting. Inner City Press has asked Ban Ki-moon's spokespeople when it is that Gambari (of the $600,000 house in Darfur) will leave, without answer.

Earlier this year when Inner City Press for a week asked about Gambari's photographs with Bashir, and Ban's spokesman belatedly said that Gambari had been told to avoid such contacts in the future, Gambari's response was that he would do it again.

Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman about that, and was simply told that the message was conveyed. But it seems Ban's message was not heard, or perhaps was meant to be misunderstood. And now even the paragraph is done. So it goes at the UN.

At UN, China Gets DESA, Austria DPI, Stonewall on Feltman, DGACM to Choi?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 31 -- The UN's game of musical chairs is nearly over. On Thursday three more posts were given out, although the UN still refuses to confirm Inner City Press' March 28 scoop that US official Jeffrey Feltman will get the top post at the Department of Political Affairs.

  But on Thursday China's Wu Hongbo got the top job in the Department of Social and Economic Affairs, with Pakistan's Shamshad Akhtar as his Assistant Secretary General. 

 

  This leaves open the post atop the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management. Since the Continent of Africa is losing the Deputy Secretary General spot to Swedish Jan Eliasson at the end of June, many assume and Inner City Press has reported that DGACM will go to a sub-Saharan African: Senegal's Mr. Dieng, registrar at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

  But more recently some amazed (or disgusted) sources have told Inner City Press that Ban's fellow South Korean had of Information Technology Mr. Choi may get DGACM, or perhaps the top envoy spot in Timor Leste.

  On May 1, Inner City Press reported a scenario in which the top of the Department of Public Information would go to an Austrian. And so it is: Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal. A former Greek foreign minister was a last minute top candidate -- "because Greeks need jobs," one wag said -- but Austria got it in the end.

  So Inner City Press asked Ban's Deputy Spokesman Eduardo Del Buey to responded to what Syria's Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari told it on Wednesday: that if Inner City Press' March 28 scoop of Feltman to DPA is true, it would be an "escalation." Del Buey simply refused to comment. Watch this site.

Amid Azeri Food, Talk of Council's Low Graduation Rate, Surprise at Attack on Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 30 -- With one day left in Azerbaijan's month atop the UN Security Council, rice and fish and thin meat pies were served eight floors above First Avenue across from the UN in the Turkish Center. Ambassadors went over the day's and Sunday's sessions on Syria. 

 

   One Permanent Representative mused to Inner City Press that the long stakeouts after Wednesday's session had been unnecessary: "We said it all in consultations." There was much praise for General Robert Mood for being factual, and substantially less for UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.

  "For the money he makes," one diplomat said, "he should just learn to take questions like Le Roy and Guehenno used to do." Not only his performance at Tuesday's noon briefing but his failure to do a stakeout after 11 Pakistani peacekeepers were injured in the Congo was derided. "That's his job," the representative of a troop contributing country said.

  Recently Inner City Press quoted a "South Asian representative" about how cheap France is being in the Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations. There was much guessing who had dare say que l'empereur does not have clothes. Inner City Press has asked Ban Ki-moon's Office of the Spokesman a question about this and will be writing soon.

   There was talk of the incoming head of Ban's Department of Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, including some praise for Inner City Press' March 28 scoop, and comment on its uncredited use, which has reverberated. "It's a tough job," a Western Deputy Permanent Representative said.

  Talk turned to the West Africa trip many of the Ambassadors had been on. "Cote d'Ivoire is so much better," a prominent Permanent Representative told Inner City Press. But what about Duekoue and accountability? There is that.

Of Liberia and the new Swedish Special Representative there, a well placed diplomat said THAT is why Margot Wallstrom is returning to Sweden: to take that place and get back into politics. Hila Jilani's name was bandied as a replacement; the man-bites-dog possibility of a man, Patrick Cammaert, taking over the Sexual Violence in Conflict post was a source of amusement, attributed to UN Women wanting to "dominate that field."

  More philosophical, the question arose of whether the Security Council no longer graduates the countries on its agenda, but just holds on to them for years. The topics arose when Inner City Press was chided for not going on the West Africa trip, as it had gone on trips to Sudan, Chad Congo, Djibouti and also Sri Lanka with Ban Ki-moon.

  But Liberia and Sierra Leone are called peaceful, was the retort. When will they graduate? When's the last time the Council really graduated a country?

  The Permanent Representative dug into the past: Mozambique, Angola, El Salvador. Yeah - and since?

  Elsewhere in the city there were Norwegian diplomats bidding farewell, and good ones, too. But the Council came first: it had to.

  Repeatedly Inner City Press was asked about "that fight against you" headlined by reporters from five big media circulating to all UN correspondents Wednesday morning a screed against the Press.

   One diplomat adopted the name for them, the "P5 plus 1" -- they are Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, Timothy Witcher of Agence France Presse, Flavia Krause-Jackson of Bloomberg, Talal Al-Haq of Al-Arabia and Margaret Besheer of Voice of America, plus UNCA president Giampaolo Pioli.

  "It's almost like the P5," the diplomat continued, "with Agence FRANCE Presse, Reuters for the UK... But then you have two from America, and none from China or Russia."

  Inner City Press has proposed a Russian journalist as one of its three nominees for the "Board of Examination" that the P5+1 are demanding. It is equally ironic that these diplomats, many from countries not known for freedom of the press, expressed more commitment to letting the Press do its work than the big journalists who signed the letter.

  "A lot of UN officials would want you out," a diplomat told Inner City Press, "and also a few missions," naming France. "But other journalists? Maybe they're doing it on behalf of someone else."

   "The way to fight it," Inner City Press was advised, "is just to push for transparency at every turn. Why should it be secret?"

  At least of those speaking Wednesday night the only one on the side of the P5+1 was another journalist, one known to fall asleep in the Dag Hammaskjold Library Auditorium.

  But unlike the diplomats, the sleeper has a vote, and asked for an "off site briefing" by Inner City Press, to rebut an email the P5+1 sent out on UNCA's list without yet allowing any reply or dissent (this right has formally been requested.)

  The question is, why can't Ambassadors be on the Board of Examination? Especially since UNCA's Executive Board has recruited Permanent Representatives as judges for its prizes, including the Perm Rep of Sri Lanka?

   We need your information, another diplomat said, urging Inner City Press to ask for help if needed. But a media shouldn't need the support of a particular member state to be treated fairly at the UN. And as one major Permanent Representative opined Wednesday night, maybe this fight will hurt the indicters more than the defendant. "They look terrible," he said. But it is a waste of time. 

  A diplomat who was shown a denunciation the P5+1 / UNCA Executive Board mass e-mailed to all UNCA members without giving Inner City Press the opportunity to use the UNCA e-mail list later said, it's like a purge, for things you published. What'll they do next: remove your image from old photographs with UNCA? Inner City Press has asked for the second time to respond or dissent on the same "Party controlled" e-mail channel; watch this site.