Libya Mission of UN Headed by Brit & Finn, German Coming 3d, Juppe Says NATO Will Keep Bombing

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 19 -- Two weeks after Inner City Press wrote that Finn Georg Charpentier would be named deputy chief to Brit Ian Martin in heading up the UN's mission in Libya, on Monday Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky confirmed both postings, then refused to answer criticism about them. Video here, from Minute 25:38.

Inner City Press asked for confirmation of its next scoop, that the Number Three official in the UNSMIL mission will be the German Hansjoerg Strohmeyer, chief of the Policy Development and Studies branch with the UN Office for the Coordination of Political Affairs."

Nesirky said, "I've read out two, it's not enough for you, you want the third." But Inner City Press reported on Charpentier getting the deputy post, from sources inside the UN Department of Political Affairs, back on September 1.

As Inner City Press wrote on September 14, "Three top UN jobs on Libya -- four if you count [Canadian elections expert Craig] Jenness -- and no Africans or Arabs, after all the planning was done in New York by a Brit."

Twice Inner City Press asked Nesirky to respond to criticism from within the UN's own Department of Political Affairs that Africans, and Arabs, have been cut out. Nesirky repeated, these are international civil servants. Europeans only?

Many questions were raised about Charpentier's closeness with the Khartoum regime of Omar al Bashir, indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court. This is the best the UN can find?

Since Ian Martin erred by writing in his report, leaked to and published by Inner City Press, that NATO would have a continuing role in Libya, it appears that Ban looked for a non-NATO member -- but only as far as Finland.

Earlier on Monday, French foreign minister Alain Juppe took five questions at the Council on Foreign Relations, mostly about Palestine. Inner City Press was there, but not called on by fawning moderator James P. Rubin to ask about Libya. In his opening remarks, Juppe said that NATO will keep bombing until all Qaddafi supporters give us. He called South Africa "the most reluctant" of the IBSA countries, but said that on March 19 at the UN South Africa "got convinced." And so it goes.

On Libya, UN Trio Set, Rushing to Electoral Role, Desperate After Martin Plan Leaked, Sources Say

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED* NATIONS, September 14 -- On Libya the UN Secretariat's motives and methods continue to draw fire, from within the UN to the shores of Tripoli.

From both there was surprise then anger that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon let Ian "the Brit" Martin sit in New York writing a plan that included 200 military observers and a continuing role for NATO presented as simply "a factual statement."

Click here for the Martin Report, exclusively obtained by Inner City Press.

Following the publication of the Martin Report by Inner City Press, the National Transitional Council rejected it, and Ban quickly scrambled to come up with a non-military rationale for immediate UN involvement in an NTC-run Libya. He fastened on elections, and said he would quickly send the UN's experts.

But, well placed UN sources tell Inner City Press, many in the UN Department of Political Affairs including in the Electoral Assistance Unit headed by the Canadian Craig Jenness who now must "go for show" to Libya feel it is way too early for meaningful visits and talks about elections. They are going "just because Ban said so," and "for show."

Meanwhile anger continues to grow among African DPA staff, who met again this week to vent their frustration. They say that Libya was in their shop until it got high profile; then it was taken away and "given to a Brit," Ian Martin.

Then, as Inner City Press exclusively reported, the Deputy and Humanitarian job was slated for not an African or Arab but a Finn, Georg Charpentier, whose work in Sudan had been widely criticized.

Now they say even the number three UN job on Libya is going to another European, the German Hansjoerg Strohmeyer, chief of the Policy Development and Studies branch with the UN Office for the Coordination of Political Affairs. Three top UN jobs on Libya -- four if you count Jenness -- and no Africans or Arabs, after all the planning was done in New York by a Brit.

While countries on the Security Council dubious of NATO's role now push for greater UN involvement, the way Ban's UN through Martin did planning for or on a country from afar had led some in the TNC to conclude that the UN and NATO are "similar," and now to be kept out or kept a close eye on.

Inner City Press put this question to DPA chief Lynn Pascoe, widely seen in DPA as a lame duck, but Pascoe ducked, refusing to explain or justify the Martin Report's line about a continuing role for NATO or to respond to charges that the UN is no longer viewed as impartial.

"They are bumbling forward," a well placed DPA source told Inner City Press on September 13, "and it is not going to end well." Watch this site.

* - with reporting from the UN.

As UN Hands Libya to Ian Martin, His Deputy'd be Finn Georg Charpentier, Who Hid Sudan Abuse, Sources Say

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 1 -- At the "Friends of Libya" meeting in Paris on Thursday UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that his adviser on post conflict planning Ian Martin is headed to Tripoli.

Ban did not say for how long, but UN insiders who contacted Inner City Press complained this indicates not only that Martin has entirely eclipsed mediator Abdul Ilah Al Khatib, but is nailing down the UN Libya Special Representative or pro-consul role.

"Why someone from a NATO country?" one senior UN official asked Inner City Press. "Why the lack of Africans or Arabs on Martin's team?" UN sources told Inner City Press that in line to be the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General, and Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya is a Finn, Georg Charpentier.

One of Charpentier's selling points to Ban, beyond his need for a job after the UN was essentially thrown out Norht Sudan, is that Finland is not a NATO member. For that reason, too, sources tell Inner City Press that Finland was approached to provide troops under Martin's UN plan for Libya, exclusively obtained and published by Inner City Press.

Inner City Press has previously covered and met Charpentier, most recently during a trip to Sudan during which Charpentier was downplaying the destruction of villages in Darfur. That he would now be sent to Libya may reflect his personal connections, but speaks badly of the Ban administration, even as to geographic balance.

From a previous report:

"The only reason Inner City Press learned of Charpentier's awareness of the destruction of villages in Jebel Marra was that he left a single copy a binder marked “Internal Use Only” on the Press bus in El Fasher on October 8, 2010. The internal document was from “September 27 - October 4 2010” and referred to “Sora” with an A, and spoke of “intense ground fighting and aerial attacks in Eastern Jebel Marra over the past week, with several villages heavily affected, including Sora, which was completely burned down.”

But in the Dubai airport on the way back to New York, Inner City Press managed to ask two Permanent Five members of the Security Council if Charpentier had mentiones this village destruction to them. One said plainly, 'no.'"

With the UN now essentially thrown out of Northern Sudan, it seems it views Libya as the new goldrush. (Sudan, meanwhile, recognized the TNC on August 24. Inner City Press asked a Sudanese diplomat about it on September 1 and he replied, Gaddafi always helped the Darfur rebels.)

As previously reported, because those Security Council members dubious of the current Libya goldrush have chosen to call for more UN involvement as a way to try to limit NATO's role, they are hard pressed to publicly criticize Martin's statement in his report to Ban that NATO will have a continuing role in Libya even after Gaddafi's fall.

Therefore for now the only check on le projet Martin is the National Transitional Council. Among their ranks are some UN experts, including tenth-hour defector Shalgam and the political coordinator during Gaddafi's Libya's recent time on the Security Council. Will they hold Martin in check? We'll see.

As Sudan Shoots Students in Darfur, UN Says It's Better, Ignores Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 20 -- The UN says it is not forgetting or trying to cover up Sudanese government abuse in Darfur, but both appear to be going on.

The UN's Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan Georg Charpentier in a press conference in Khartoum this week said that despite the raised level of violent deaths in Darfur in 2010, the figure is exaggerated because it includes tribe on tribe murders. (Of course, the UN is reporting and highlighting just such numbers in Cote d'Ivoire and attributing tribal killings to the government in power there.)

On January 18, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin Nesirky what the UN and the UN - African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) under Ibrahim Gambari have to say about the reported torture of Darfur activists including the editor of the Al Sahafa newspaper.

Nesirky had no information, bu the next day sent an email that UNAMID is looking into it. Since then, nothing.

Similarly, Nesirky's office has refused since last year to confirm or deny notes from a presentation about Sudan by the UN Department of Political Affairs that were leaked to Inner City Press. The question was reiterated on January 19, without any response.

On January 19, cutting off his noon briefing at 12:15 for, ironically, a press conference by the Special Adviser on Genocide (who used to work for the Government of Sudan), Nesirky did not allow Inner City Press to ask a question about government shooting in Darfur.

Later on January 19 Inner City Press submitted the Darfur question, and reiterated Sudan question, to Nesirky and his Deputy Farhan Haq in writing.

At the January 20 briefing, Nesirky did not mention the shootings, and had not sent any answer about them to Inner City Press. So Inner City Press asked the question again. Nesirky pulled out notes he had not read from to start the briefing, and said that students were shot and taken to Khartoum.

“Who shot them?” Inner City Press asked.

“That, I can't tell,” Nesirky said. Indeed.

Later on January 20, Inner City Press directly asked the head of UN Peacekeeping Alain Le Roy about Charpentier's rosy assessment of Darfur. Le Roy said there are over 40,000 new internally displaced people. Who is the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Sudan? Watch this site.

As in Sudan Arrests & Attacks Loom, UN Cuts Monitoring, Security Council Silent

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 2 -- In Sudan over the weekend Darfur human rights activists were arrested, and the Khartoum office of a radio station which covers the conflict was shuttered.

Tuesday morning in front of the UN Security Council in New York, Inner City Press asked delegations what they would do about it. Mostly they referred to a November 16 meeting on Sudan, which focuses on the North South referendum.

Now Inner City Press hears from sources that the UN's Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan Georg Charpentier has ordered that all “non-essential” missions in the country should be suspended until February 2011 -- that is, until after the referendum.

The implication, the sources say, is that the UN will do even less reporting on human rights abuses and malnutrition in Darfur than it has been doing of late. The idea is that the UN -- and perhaps Western countries on the Security Council -- are so interested in the referendum that they are increasingly looking the other way on Darfur, as things there get worse.

Sources also report that many tanks, troops were seen in North Darfur areas of Kutum, Kernoi, and Altina. Same in addition to janjaweed gatherings were seen in West Darfur in areas of Geneina and Kulbus.

Pro Government of Sudan volunteers landed in Kutum airport. One was asked by Darfuri policeman: What are you and where are you going. The person reportedly answered, we are mujahideen and the government told us we have to fight the infidels and their supporters in Darfur. We came to clean Darfur.

Some Arab tribes revolted and refused to participate in the operation. Sources say most of those revolted were in the army and belong to Bani Halba Arab tribe. The operation is planned to start in November (within few days). It would, the sources say, start with aerial bombings with planes taking off from Dongola in the North Sudan (neighboring state to Darfur in th nile north) rather than from Darfur airports (due to the last noise regarding U.N.S.C. visit and arms embargo reports). The operation is timed to finish before the end of December, just before referendum of Jan 2011. That's what sources say.

There are reports of attacks on civilians in Tawila, and that the UNAMID peacekeepers “did nothing.” Could this be part of the referendum strategy?

On Monday at noon Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: first on Darfur, I wanted to ask you, it’s been… the Ugandan Army… the military, their main spokesman said on Friday that Joseph Kony has now passed from Central African Republic into Darfur. I know that the UN had set up UNMIS [United Nations Mission in the Sudan] to be part of some… along with MONUSCO [United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo] and the soon to be finished MINURCAT [United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad] to be looking into the LRA [Lord’s Resistance Army]. But does UNAMID [African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur] have a comment on this indicted war criminal, according to Uganda, having gone into Darfur and what in fact would UNAMID do about this [inaudible] case?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Let me find out.

Inner City Press: Also there is a report, just this, a factual thing, but there’s reports of fighting in South Darfur resulting in 10 dead, and I am just wondering, is this the kind of thing that UNAMID tracks? Can it confirm this or…?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, again I am sure UNAMID, if they have information, they’d let us know. I don’t have anything right now.

And 22 hours later, still nothing. Watch this site.

UN Won't Count IDPs in Darfur or Soldiers in Sudan, Gambari to Violate Convention Against Torture?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 19 -- The UN routinely fails at stopping conflict, even at stopping rape. But it continues to be counted on to at least do some counting. It issues reports, to the Security Council and to the public, about how many security patrols its mission in Darfur UNAMID conducted, or how many ceasefire violations occurred across a border.

In Sudan, however, the UN is hitting new lows. Earlier this month covering the Security Council's trip through the country, Inner City Press exposed how UN Humanitarian Coordinator Georg Charpentier was downplaying and even covering up the destruction of villages in Jebel Marra like Soro, and the blockade of Internally Displaced Persons' camps like the one being disassembled in Kalma.

Now back in New York, Inner City Press on October 19 asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq to confirm or deny reports of increased aerial bombardment in Jebel Marra, and a stream of IDPs to the camps in Shangil Tobaya and Tawila.

While from the former, the Security Council was blocked from visiting by the government, the latter has a Rwandan battalion of UNAMID peacekeepers.

Haq responded with an old statement from Charpentier about Soro, how hard it is to know. But, Inner City Press asked, can't the UN count the number of new IDPs arriving, at least at the camps in which it has peacekeepers? Haq did not answer this simple question of fact. Video here.

To many, it appears that the UN, or at least its UNAMID mission under Ibrahim Gambari, is trying to help cover up the Omar al Bashir regime's renewed push of ethnic cleansing in Darfur.

Meanwhile Gambari's counterpart at the UN Mission in (South) Sudan, Haile Menkerios, was caught in a misstatement of fact, according to reporters who cover him.

In an October 18 press conference, Menkerios told Xinhua -- reportedly one of the media organizations whose Sudanese staff was thrown off the UN Security Council plane by UNMIS in Juba -- that his Mission hasn't investigated troop build ups on the border of North and South Sudan because there were only “in the press.”

But senior southern army officer Mat Paul said “U.N. officials were not owning up to their lack of access. 'This year, the build-up of SAF (northern army) started in June in South Kordofan and other areas and we've been raising this several times with the U.N.' said Paul, who is the SPLA's representative in the joint north-south ceasefire monitoring commission (CJMC) chaired by the United Nations. 'They...just keep quiet so there is no monitoring,' he said.”

UNMIS “lies,” according to local reporters, to cover up that it has given in to Khartoum's blockage of access to monitor troop build ups. UNAMID in Darfur simply refuses to even count incoming IDPs. Both are (mis?) run by Ban Ki-moon's Department of Peacekeeping Operations, although Gambari often freelances.

At what point has the UN become complicit?

Footnote: UNAMID's Ibrahim Gambari's planned turn over to the al Bashir regime of five supporters of Fur rebel Abdel Wahid Nur may, it was argued Tuesday at the UN, violate the spirit and even letter of Article 3 of the Convention against Torture. Inner City Press asked the chairman of the Committee Against Torture Claudio Grossman if the obligation not to hand anyone over to a government accused of torture applied to the UN and UNAMID. Video here.

He replied that no one should make such a turn over, and that arguments can be made about the applicability of the law to the UN (and by implication Gambari). Watch this site.

As UN Admits Burning of Darfur Village, It Had a Health Center But Now “No Access”

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 17 -- A recently destroyed Darfur village, mentioned in a document of UN humanitarian coordinator Georg Charpentier but not to the Security Council during their visit last week, has been belatedly been acknowledged by the UN, in a prepared statement issued October 14.

After Inner City Press asked about the village, and the UN's silence, on October 11 and 12, on October 14 spokesman Martin Nesirky said “I have been asked a couple times about reports of attacks on a village in Jebel Marra. We have actually had reports of attacks on as many as six villages, including the one already named, Soro, as well as other villages in eastern Jebel Marra. These villages have not all been identified, as the information about the reported attacks is very sketchy. Confirmation is difficult, and there is no access in these areas.”

First, Inner City Press which traveled to Darfur last week can name other attacked villages: Dera and Jawa, whose residents fled to Sebi village, and Suni whose residents fled to Logi village.

Second, it is worth comparing the UN's October 14, 2010 statement “there is no access to these areas” to a job advertisement of the village of Soro in 2008, recruiting a coordinator to work in a health clinic there. (See below.)

That this now destroyed village was a health clinic is significant, as is the fact that the access that existed is now gone. Under the tenure of Georg Charpentier and UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari, so close to the regime of Omar al Bashir that he is about to turn over supporters of Fur rebel Abdel Wahid Nur to Bashir, there has been less and less protection of civilians in Darfur.

Rather, from Charpentier we have propaganda like press releases such as the one Nesirky read out on October 14:

“Georg Charpentier, is concerned by limitations on humanitarian access in view of intensified fighting in parts of Eastern Jebel Marra in Darfur. The Humanitarian Coordinator welcomed the recent access by the World Health Organization and UNICEF to some parts of Eastern Jebel Marra, and he calls upon parties to the conflict to facilitate humanitarian access on a regular basis. In this regard, he notes recent assurances from the Government of Sudan that access will be enlarged and sustained to allow for coverage of the national immunization campaign that started today.”

As the local press Radio Dabanga has noted, “Past press releases from Georg Charpentier have been screened by the Sudanese ministry of humanitarian affairs, a UN official who is senior to Charpentier has told the New York-based Inner City Press. Charpentier has denied this.”

Ambassadors including US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice have had this issue and now Soro raised to them, but so far at least publicly have done nothing.

The only reason Inner City Press learned of Charpentier's awareness of the destruction of villages in Jebel Marra was that he left a single copy a binder marked “Internal Use Only” on the Press bus in El Fasher on October 8.

The internal document was from “September 27 - October 4 2010” and referred to “Sora” with an A, and spoke of “intense ground fighting and aerial attacks in Eastern Jebel Marra over the past week, with several villages heavily affected, including Sora, which was completely burned down.”

But in the Dubai airport on the way back to New York, Inner City Press managed to ask two Permanent Five members of the Security Council if Charpentier had mentiones this village destruction to them. One said plainly, “no;” the other jumped ahead to use of the above quoted, whether the destruction was aerial (direct government) or ground (government supported janjawiid).

Once back in New York, Inner City Press asked on October 11

Inner City Press: as we left there, some, Mr. [Georg] Charpentier had provided a document that seems to indicate that, in the week before the Council’s visit, a village called Sora in eastern Jebel Marra was “entirely, completely burned down”. I know that Mr. Charpentier briefed the Council” members, but none of them on the way back seemed to… this wasn’t mentioned to them. I heard the very positive upbeat report you gave, what does UNAMID and Mr. Charpentier do when a village is entirely destroyed? Is it an important thing? Is it the kind of thing that they should brief the Council about?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Can you roll back and tell me again, because it is sort of confusing.

Inner City Press: Okay. Among documents that Mr. Charpentier provided at the end of the trip…

Spokesperson: To whom?

Inner City Press: He gave it into the Press bus, saying that this would just verify things that he’d said about things not being a problem in Jebel Marra. But deep in the document, it says that a village named Sora was completely burned down. It doesn’t say whether it was by ground fighting or an aerial attack. But if it’s aerial, it seems it would be the Government. None of the Security Council ambassadors on the way back had been aware of this or had been briefed on this. So, I guess my question, it’s a twofold one, factually it would be is it possible to discover from Mr. Charpentier, whose document this is, whether the village of Sora was destroyed from the air or by ground? And maybe some statement on why, in the briefing that he gave to the Council, this destruction was not raised?

Spokesperson: I am assuming you didn’t raise it with him yourself, because it was passed into the bus, and then you read it after the bus pulled away?

Inner City Press: I read it actually on the way back, yes, yes.

Spokesperson: Right. Okay, well let’s relay that back whence you just came.

At the next day's noon briefing, Nesirky provided update. So Inner City Press asked again:

Inner City Press: Did you get anything back on this issue of this village of Sora that was listed as being…?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I can assure you that something is in the works. I don’t have anything for you right now. Something is in the works.

It was two days later on October 14 with the above-quoted “thing in the works” was unveiled.

It was a prepared statement from Charpentier, read out by Nesirky, that did not disclose whether the villages were destroyed by aerial attack or ground fighting, but rather welcome access granted by the government of Omar al Bashir and, like Gambari, Bashir's assurances.

Here's from the Medecins du Monde job notice about Soro

General Coordinator

Médecins du Monde

Médecins du Monde is an international humanitarian organisation whose mission is : to provide medical care for the most vulnerable populations when they are faced with crisis or exclusion from society, the world over, including France

The rationale of the project is to participate to the improvement of the health care status and capacity of the population to maintain its own health status, in Deribat region. It will seek to:

- Reinforce primary health care services for the population, covered by six health care centres (Deribat, Jawa, Suni, Dera, Kebra, Soro) with the focus:

- of improving maternal and children health

- of improving the nutritional state of children under 5

- of preventing and treating common pathologies and those that could lead to epidemics

- Implement a global and integrated evaluation of population needs and a protection chapter on the question of human rights.

So there was a health care center in Soro. And now it's gone. Watch this site.

With Sudan in Crisis, UN Dodges Questions of Destroyed Village and Arrests, Clooney DC Follies

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 13, updated Oct 14 -- While the UN speaks about how important Sudan is to it, it refuses to answer basic questions, both in its New York headquarters and in Sudan.

On October 11, having returned from the Security Council trip to Sudan during which, among other things, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Georg Charpentier neglected to tell the Council about the village of Sora in Darfur being entirely destroyed the previously week, and the internally displaced people who spoke with the Council were subsequently interrogated and intimidated by Sudanese authorities, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky about both of these issues.

On both issues on October 11, Nesirky said “let's find out.” When asked again about Sora at the UN noon briefing on October 12, Nesirky said “I can assure you that something is in the works. I don’t have anything for you right now. Something is in the works.”

Thirty hours after that, 54 hours after the Sora question was asked, nothing, no response at all.

And so early on October 13, Inner City Press directed three questions to the Spokesperson for the UN Mission in Sudan... which were only responded too evasively 24 hours later, here.]

The Q&A with the UN Spokesman is transcribed below. But in Washington DC George Clooney, with whom the UN Security Council met with for longer than they met with IDPs, was reported to be asking for Congressional action. What action?

One media outlet said he was raising issues of Darfur, which he didn't visit. How seriously is South Sudan, much less Darfur, being taken?

From the UN's October 11 then October 12 noon briefings:

Inner City Press: On Sudan, following the Council’s visit to the Abu Shouk internally displaced persons camp, I guess that was on Friday, there have been reports that the people they spoke with had been interrogated by Sudanese authorities, and in some cases, arrested. I am wondering if UNAMID is aware of that or the UN, I mean the UN system more broadly, and what they intend to do about it?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Let’s find out.

Protest in Khartoum, UN and Clooney not shown (c) MRLee

Inner City Press: The other, as we left there, some, Mr. [Georg] Charpentier had provided a document that seems to indicate that, in the week before the Council’s visit, a village called Sora in eastern Jebel Marra was “entirely, completely burned down”. I know that Mr. Charpentier briefed the Council members, but none of them on the way back seemed to… this wasn’t mentioned to them. I am wondering... what does UNAMID and Mr. Charpentier do when a village is entirely destroyed? Is it an important thing? Is it the kind of thing that they should brief the Council about?

Spokesperson: Can you roll back and tell me again, because it is sort of confusing.

Inner City Press: Okay. Among documents that Mr. Charpentier provided at the end of the trip…

Spokesperson: To whom?

Inner City Press: He gave it into the press bus, saying that this would just verify things that he’d said about things not being a problem in Jebel Marra. But deep in the document, it says that a village named Sora was completely burned down. It doesn’t say whether it was by ground fighting or an aerial attack. But if it’s aerial, it seems it would be the Government. None of the Security Council ambassadors on the way back had been aware of this or had been briefed on this. So, I guess my question, it’s a twofold one, factually it would be is it possible to discover from Mr. Charpentier, whose document this is, whether the village of Sora was destroyed from the air or by ground? And maybe some statement on why, in the briefing that he gave to the Council, this destruction was not raised?

Spokesperson: I am assuming you didn’t raise it with him yourself, because it was passed into the bus, and then you read it after the bus pulled away?

Inner City Press: I read it actually on the way back, yes, yes.

Spokesperson: Right. Okay, well let’s relay that back whence you just came.

A full 24 hours later, noon briefing of October 12:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask a couple of questions about Sudan. One is, there has been, I guess in the last 24 hours, there have been a couple of developments. One is a quote by President [Omer Hassan] al-Bashir that he will not accept any alternative to unity, which many people say is basically a threat not to accept the “yes” vote if the vote is in fact held 9 January. So I am wondering, there was a statement made on 24 September, but this statement by al-Bashir seems to be totally contradictory to it. So, I am just wondering, what’s the process for either UNMIS [United Nations Mission in Sudan] or the Secretariat to… What did they think of that statement? And also there was an arrest made on Saturday, as it turns out, of these pro-secession people in Khartoum as part of the demonstration. They were not only beaten, but it turns out they were arrested. So the SPLM [Sudan People’s Liberation Movement] has said that’s a bad move and violates the CPA [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] that they are not allowed to campaign for secession. Does the UN have any response to that?

Spokesperson Nesirky: On that second question, I’ll see what we can get you on that. I don’t have anything right now. On the first question, I would indeed refer back to the statement, the communiqué, that was issued. I don’t think we will be commenting on every twist and turn. The basic principles of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement are well-known, and the communiqué speaks very clearly about the need to stay on track.

Inner City Press: Did you get anything back on this issue of this village of Sora that was listed as being…?

Spokesperson: I can assure you that something is in the works. I don’t have anything for you right now. Something is in the works.

But 30 hours later, nothing. Watch this site.

Footnote: while Nesirky held a noon briefing on October 13, he had only just begun to take questions when he stopped, to present guests who had spent three hours working toward a future report. When they were done, so was Nesirky: he didn't ask if there were many more questions. But there were...