UN Council Trip to Sudan is Back On, After Obama and Taha Praise, US to Announce

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, September 28, 2010 -- The UN Security Council is, after delay and negotiations, going on a trip to Sudan, Inner City Press exclusively learned on Tuesday morning. “The US will take the floor and annouce it,” a well place source told Inner City Press.

The issue was whether Sudan would require the Security Council Ambassadors to meet with and even take photos with President Omar al Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide.

The US and UK, in charge of different parts of the long planned Sudan trip, have been trying to get Sudan to drop these demands, to avoid the photo op.

Now, days after US President Obama gave a speech about Sudan in which he mentioned neither the ICC nor Bashir, and Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Taha praised the new US approach, the impasse has been resolved.

Multiple sources say the trip will be announced later at Tuesday. But at what cost? Watch this site.

Obama Does Not Mention Bashir, Whose VP Taha Praises Obama at UN Sudan Meet

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- The open portion of the UN Sudan meeting was as surprising for what was not said as for what was. US President Barack Obama in his ten minute speech did not once mention Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide.

Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Taha on the other hand, or perhaps in reciprocation, praised “the next direction and the emergent spirit of the United States of America of positive and constructive engagement.”

Inner City Press was allowed in the meeting for the first four speakers, and got the first copy of Taha's prepared speech. That the praise of Obama was in the prepared text may imply that Taha and his government knew that Bashir would not be mentioned.

Similarly, after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Taha earlier in the week, Inner City Press asked her spokesman PJ Crowley about Bashir, and specifically whether he would require a meeting and photo op if the UN Security Council visits the country as initially planned on October 4 to 11, Crowley said Bashir “did not come up” in the meeting.

After being asked to leave Friday's Sudan meeting after Ban Ki-moon, Obama, Taha and Salva Kiir spoke, Inner City Press asked a Security Council Ambassador if any progress had been made on scheduling the Council trip to Sudan, which members such as Austria and Mexico want.

No, the Ambassador said, maybe after the meeting. Asked by Inner City Press about Obama not mentioning Bashir, the Ambassador nodded and added, “it will be interesting to see how many of the African heads of state present mention Bashir and how.” Yes, it will.

Rwanda's Paul Kagame left the meeting after the first four speakers, as did Nick Clegg of the UK. The EU's Catherine Ashton left while Salvia Kiir was talking, after having sat near the back of the room typing on a laptop. It is expected that top UN Peacekeeper Alain Le Roy will take questions from the Press after the meeting is over and the Communique is issued.

Obama, UN's Ban and Le Roy on Sept 24, Bashir not shown, (c) M.R. Lee

Earlier today -- before the meeting -- Inner City Press published a near final draft of the Communique. At Friday's noon briefing at the UN, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky to describe the role of the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Department of Political Affairs in the Communique. Nesirky, who should answer this question, has yet to. Watch this site.

UN Sudan Meeting Has Weak Communique, Little Darfur Focus, “Big-Footing” by US, Other Nations Say

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- This afternoon's closed door meeting on Sudan at the UN has been presented as a watershed, a highlight of this year's UN General Assembly. US President Obama's “14 minute speech” has been hyped by his Special Adviser Samantha Power, when Inner City Press asked why Obama had not mentioned Sudan in his General Assembly speech.

The UN Secretariat has bragged to reporters about its role in putting together the Communique to be issued after the meeting.

Inner City Press has obtained a near final draft of the Communique and it putting it online here in advance of the meeting. Of its 14 paragraphs, three deal with Darfur and one with Eastern Sudan. The Communique is a surprisingly weak statement, human rights advocates say. “How could this be the highlight of the US' involvement?” one asked Inner City Press.

Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Taha will participate in the meeting, and is slated to speak to the Press afterward. The day before, Inner City Press asked African Union Commission President Jean Ping what the AU hopes to come out of the meeting.

Ping said the AU takes a “holistic” approach, which some view as a codeword for “drop or suspend the International Criminal Court indictment of Omar Al Bashir for war crimes and genocide.”

Less than four hours before the meeting, Inner City Press asked Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan what if he thought the meeting -- and by implication, the Communique -- dealt sufficiently with Darfur, where Nigeria has peacekeeping battalions controlled by former Nigerian diplomat Ibrahim Gambari.

President Jonathan spoke about Darfur but also about the referendum, saying that the borders should be clear before the vote, scheduled for January 9, 2011. It seems unlikely that the borders, much less the division of oil revenue, will be decided before then.

While the US “big foots,” as one advocate put it, nearly unilaterally stalling a planned Security Council trip to Sudan due to a reticence for the US Permanent Representative to meet or take a photo with Omar al Bashir, smaller non-Permanent Council members try to do what they can.

Mexico is on record as favoring the Council trip to Sudan, even if “some P-5 Ambassadors stay in their hotel rooms.” Austria has offered legal expertise to both sides, in meetings Friday with Khartoum's foreign minister Ali Ahmed Karti and two ministers from South Sudan.

When told by Inner City Press of this work and these complaints by non Permanent Council members on Sudan, a senior UN official this week replied, “I'd hate to be a small member state.” And so it goes at the UN. We will be Tweeting and live blogging from outside the Sudan meeting: watch @InnerCityPress