On South Sudan, Hilde Johnson's Praise of Salva Kiir, & UN "News Center" Headline, Echoed by Reuters

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 26 -- When the UN's Special Representative in South Sudan Hilde Johnson took media questions by video link on December 26, she quoted and praised President Salva Kiir for his pledges on accountability.

  Johnson said, "I welcome President Kiir’s statement of 24 December calling for arrest of anyone involved in atrocities and that he would hold them accountable. We are expecting action to follow."

  The irony of this, given Kiir's reported role, seems obvious. But in the two hours that followed, Reuters ran almost exactly the same headline as the in-house UN News Center: "U.N. hopes for South Sudan reinforcements within 48 hours" (Reuters) and "UN hopes to have peacekeeping reinforcements in strife-torn South Sudan within 48 hours" (UN News Center).

  (Might these be from Bangladesh? From which mission and how would a transfer impact the UN's pledges in Cote d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of the Congo? The UN Spokesperson has not answered that question in 123 hours.)

 Reuters ended its "analysis" or stenography of the UN video link session with Johnson's quote praising Kiir, without any analysis much less noting the irony:

"She welcomed Kiir's stated determination to look into the allegations, while saying that "we expect action to follow." (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)"

  What would this be -- a self-arrest, the ultimate selfie?

  Inner City Press asked Johnson about reports that "young men from the Dinka community, many of them with no military training, were given uniforms and guns from various armories around the capital, including one located at President Kiir's own compound, known as J1."

  Johnson replied that several government armories had been "broken into" and army uniforms and equipment distributed. To some, it was just what a defense lawyer, in this case for Kiir, would say. But in a real trial the question would be, Did you report them stolen at the time?

  In any event, it seems strange for Johnson at this time to be quoting with praise Salva Kiir, and speaking favorably of government control of Bor, which was re-taken by force. Does the government do that elsewhere (other than, for example, Sri Lanka)?

  Inner City Press asked Johnson about threats by Kiir's supporters to re-take Bentiu by force. Johnson said she hopes talks can proceed in tranquility and that option is not pursued. It fell short of saying, as the UN does elsewhere, don't re-take by force.

  One wanted to ask other questions, about the status of Yida camp (the UNHCR person to whom South Sudan OCHA referred Inner City Press is, who knew, out of the office from December 9 to January 9), of the UN base in Yuai from which the UN withdrew peacekeepers and of other UN facilities Inner City Press has asked in writing about, in for example Aweil, and in Kuacjok.

  Johnson was asked at the end of her briefing about reports UNMISS helped and or sheltered armed rebels. Her response, partially cut off by the understandably choppy audio from Juba, seemed limited to non-governmental fighters.

So Inner City Press has asked the UN Spokesperson, adding to the other questions left unanswered now for 120 hours, that while Johnson "spoke of disarming those who enter UNMISS bases... please state if this applied to the 27 SPLA fighters whom UNMISS spokesperson Joe Contreras was quoted by this same Reuters as saying sought shelter with with UNMISS in Rubkona, across the river from Bentiu, and separately state if UNMISS has sheltered SPLA fighters anywhere else in the past two weeks."

Watch this site.

   

From South Sudan, On Reports of Killers Armed from Salva Kiir's Armory, UN Envoy Hilde Johnson Says It Was Broken Into: Defense Lawyer?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 26 -- When the UN's envoy to South Sudan Hilde Johnson took press questions on December 26, she quoted and praised President Salva Kiir for his pledges on accountability.

  Inner City Press asked Johnson about reports that "young men from the Dinka community, many of them with no military training, were given uniforms and guns from various armories around the capital, including one located at President Kiir's own compound, known as J1."

  Johnson replied that several government armories had been "broken into" and army uniforms and equipment distributed. To some, it was just what a defense lawyer, in this case for Kiir, would say. But in a real trial the question would be, Did you report them stolen at the time?

  In any event, it seems strange for Johnson at this time to be quoting with praise Salva Kiir, and speaking favorably of government control of Bor, which was re-taken by force. Does the government do that elsewhere (other than, for example, Sri Lanka)?

  Inner City Press asked Johnson about threats by Kiir's supporters to re-take Bentiu by force. Johnson said she hopes talks can proceed in tranquility and that option is not pursued. It fell short of saying, as the UN does elsewhere, don't re-take by force.

  One wanted to ask other questions, about the status of Yida camp (the UNHCR person to whom South Sudan OCHA referred Inner City Press is, who knew, out of the office from December 9 to January 9), of the UN base in Yuai from which the UN withdrew peacekeepers and of other UN facilities Inner City Press has asked in writing about, in for example Aweil, and in Kuacjok.

  Johnson was asked at the end of her briefing about reports UNMISS helped and or sheltered armed rebels. Her response, partially cut off by the understandably choppy audio from Juba, seemed limited to non-governmental fighters.

So Inner City Press has asked the UN Spokesperson, adding to the other questions left unanswered now for 120 hours, that while Johnson "spoke of disarming those who enter UNMISS bases... please state if this applied to the 27 SPLA fighters whom UNMISS spokesperson Joe Contreras was quoted by Reuters as saying sought shelter with with UNMISS in Rubkona, across the river from Bentiu, and separately state if UNMISS has sheltered SPLA fighters anywhere else in the past two weeks."

Watch this site.

   

In South Sudan As Civilians Are Threatened in Yuai, UN Evacuates Its Peacekeepers, Has No Briefings for Week: Rights Up Front?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 20 -- In South Sudan amid UN talk of protecting civilians and rushing to more dangerous locations to do so, UN Peacekeeping is preparing to evacuate "40 UNMISS peacekeepers from a base in the Jonglei state town of Yuai this afternoon."

  Inner City Press on December 20 asked Security Council president Gerard Araud about this plan, what would happen to civilians under threat in Yuai. Video here, from Minute 12:53.

  Araud acknowledged that UN Peacekeeping, led by its fourth Frenchman in a row Herve Ladsous, is trying to pull out of Yuai -- in fact, it would already have done so, except its evacuation helicopters were fired at. Strangely, Araud then insisted quoting Ladsous' deputy Edmond Mulet that the UN is "on" (or in) the way, and not the target.

  As if to minimize the contradiction of claiming to be protecting civilians while evacuating armed personnel from where the civilians are, Araud said he understood there were no civilians inside the UNMISS base in Yuai.

Since all of his, and the UN's, understandings come from communications with its bases, Inner City Press asked about the breakdown in communications with the Akobo base, where two Indian peacekeepers and at least 20 civilians were killed. Araud called this a "detail" and refused to answer, saying "I'm in substantial questions." Video here, from Minute 19:47.

Inner City Press went to the day's UN noon briefing and asked acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq about the plan to pull out of Yuai. Haq had just claimed that the UN is moving peacekeepers from less dangerous to more dangerous places. Now he doubled back and said it is a matter of concentrating UN forces where they can have an impact.

But what about the civilians in Yuai?

Inner City Press asked Haq about a quote by UNMISS spokesperson Joe Contreras that 27 soldier loyal to Salva Kiir sought refuge with the UN in Rubkona. Haq said he couldn't confirm that -- which is weird, since the UN's spokesperson in South Sudan has already said it.

  Also on (mis?) communications, Inner City Press asked about the 11 hour delay in the UN confirmation the death of two Indian peacekeepers and injuring of another which India's Ambassador Askoke Mukerji told Inner City Press about on the afternoon of December 19.

  Haq said the delay was because the UN must notify families, and implicitly chided anyone who reported the death of two (unnamed) peacekeepers before the UN did. He also chided reports that three peacekeepers had died. While other went this this, apparently not having spoken with Mukerjee but only watched a meeting on UNTV or relied on a tweet, Inner City Press even in its headline said 2 dead, one injured.

But this is how the UN operates -- it does anything it can to discourage real questions by turning then around, then doling out information selectively to journalists who will report positively (and often inaccurately). 

   UN Peacekeeping, after Inner City Press first reported the Akobo deaths based on a direct conversation with Mukerje, sent other media but not Inner City Press information by e-mail. But UN Peacekeeping didn't make this information available to the public and other impacted people. It has become dysfunctional.

  As has the wider UN. Despite claims this week about a new post Sri Lanka failure "Rights Up Front" plan, in the midst of this South Sudan crisis spokesperson Haq on Friday announced no more briefings for the week -- just spin on the UN website. (The Free UN Coalition for Access,@FUNCA_info, has protested).

  As was jotted inside the Security Council consultations on December 20, there is a "credibility crisis in the UN." Watch this site.