On Sudans After Oil Deal, Questions of Heglig & Proof, Pipes At 20% Capacity

By Matthew Russell Lee, Partial exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, August 7 -- Even just after a rare agreement between Sudan and South Sudan, on oil transfer fees, at the UN in New York there were clouds on the horizon, how ever small.

  Inner City Press asked UN envoy Haile Menkerios about the deal. He was pleased, but noted that there is still the question of the Heglig needing to be fixed. Most of South Sudan's oil is in Unity State and has to travel north through the pipeline at Heglig which, he said, is only operations at twenty percent capacity.

  Moments later Inner City Press asked South Sudan's ambassador Francis Nazario. 

He said that Sudan has to repair Heglig. He said that while Sudan claims the damage was done during South Sudan's occupation, "they have to prove that."

  A Security Council Deputy Permanent Representative told Inner City Press there are still things to be worked out.

  Sudan's Permanent Representative seems sure to come for the Security Council session about the Sudans and Abyei on August 9. South Sudan will be sending a foreign minister. Watch this site.

UN Peacebuilding Capped by Sudans, Swiss Want In, Australia Ponies Up

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 12 -- The UN Security Council's "thematic debates" often garner little to no media interest, and Thursday's session on peacebuilding was no different. After a side meeting on Syria broken up, the stakeout area was empty as South Sudan and then Sudan spoke.

  Afterward Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Inner City Press he had added two elements to his speech, after hearing South Sudan: a reply on why oil production was stopped, and a line about corruption.

Asked by Inner City Press about the oil, South Sudan representative Francis Nazario told Inner City Press, "Nobody in the world can justify theft." It was on that basis that South Sudan stopped pumping oil.

  Rwanda's Permanent Representative Eugene-Richard Gasana, who will join the Security Council in January, stay all day for the debate. 

 "You have to be responsible," he said, "This is Rwanda." He said that the Council shouldn't be putting out statements now, even as other statements are prepared in Addis Ababa. "I think we have to calm down," he said.

  A decidedly lower key conflict, if one can call it that, was between Australia which pledged $12 million over four years for the peacebuilding fund, while Norway pledged $5 million a year on 2011 and again in 2012.

  Australia's pledge, it would seem, is in the context of its race against Luxembourg and Finland for two seats on the Security Council for the Western European and Other Group states. Luxembourg's Permanent Representative spoke on Thursday, genial pitching "national ownership." Finland did not speak.

Ireland, interestingly, referred to "questions accumulating about aspects of UN peacekeeping." Armenia spoke with nary a direct reference to Azerbaijan.

Swiss Permanent Representative Seger made his Small Five point, that he and other peacekeeping configuration chairs should be allowed in Security Council consultations. Burundi also said this. If we don't even say it, it will never happen, Seger told Inner City Press.

  Sweden spoke about Liberia, where the Swede Karin Landgren has been named SRSG. Colombia's foreign minister Maria Angela Holguin chaired the meeting; at the stakeout Inner City Press asked her if the PBC could help Yemen, or even Syria. She replied the Council is working hard for a resolution.

  Japan was represented by former UN controller Jun Yamazaki. In fact, the Wikipedia page about him still, as of July 12 at 4 pm, listed him as working for the UN. 

  Thomas Mayr-Harting spoke for the EU, and afterward told Inner City Press that the EU is getting more active every day. He said it's not about where you sit -- in the back in the Arms Trade Treaty -- but what you do.

  By contrast, when on the evening on July 11 Inner City Press asked the Permanent Representative Nicholas Emiliou of Cyprus, heading the EU, about the EU's role at the UN. He said he was disappointed to find some at the UN not appreciating that the EU is "sui generis," with a lot to offer. The African Union is "sui generis" too, some feel. This is a peace that must be built. Watch this site.

As UNISFA Extended, Disputes of Borders & Bombs, No SOFA Promised by Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- After the UN Security Council Thursday renewed the mandate of the "interim" peacekeeping mission in Abyei for six more months, representatives of South Sudan and Sudan came to take questions from the press.

  Inner City Press asked South Sudan's Ambassador Francis Nazario if his government would like to see UNISFA expanded to cover Heglig. He said "for the time being, we are quite pleased to see the extension for another six months... the presence should be legal." He called for human rights monitoring.

  After Sudanese diplomats on May 16 told Inner City Press that South Sudan had not pulled back behind the 1/1/1956 border, Inner City Press asked Nazario to respond. He said that the parties agree where that border is. But that is not at all clear. Inner City Press asked the Sudanese representative who followed about aerial bombing, and he insisted it is all within the borders of Sudan and thus legal and "legitimate."

  Inner City Press asked the representatives of both Sudan and South Sudan why there is still no Status of Forces Agreement for the mission, which for example would specify how med-evac of injured peacekeepers can take place. Already, four Ethiopian peacekeepers have died after landmine injuries and delays in med-evac due to the lack of a SOFA.

  Back in November 2011, one of the last press availabilities by the French chief of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous, Inner City Press asked Ladsous about the continuing lack of a Status of Forces Agreement in Abyei. Ladsous said it was not problem, the SOFA was nearly done.

  That was six months ago, but still there is no SOFA, which puts UN peacekeepers at risk. When after a long period of invisibility Ladsous held a press conference this month, he insisted that it be limited to questions about Syria. 

  Inner City Press said, you should take questions on Sudan, and Haiti. But he did not. There is more to say, but Ladsous' DPKO has descended to seeking to censor articles and demand to know their sourcing. We will have more on this.