As S. Sudan Assures Inner City Press No Support to JEM, UNSC Dipomat Tells Press August 2 "Won't Be Met"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 26 -- South Sudan's ambassador Francis Nazario on Thursday detailed to the Press his government's offer to Sudan, a week before the stated deadline for an agreement. 

  Inner City Press read him Khartoum's rejection of the offer, and asked that South Sudan would do if no deal was reached by August 2. We believe they should accept it, Nazario said.

  Sudan says that security issues come first, that it is not the right time to talk about oil even if Juba offered a $40 a barrel transfer fee. That is unlikely: South Sudan raised its offer from $1 upt o $9.10 on one pipeline, $7.26 on the other.

South Sudan proposes that in Abyei the Dinka but not Miseriya vote, and that the latter enter only unarmed. This seems unlike to be accepted.

Thabo Mbeki was slated to brief the Security Council on July 26 but did not. "He is busy with the parties," one of his supporters on the Council told Inner City Press. 

Another said, he doesn't have to answer to the Council, and who wants to be associated with failure?

Inner City Press asked Nazario about Sudan's charges that South Sudan supports the SPLM-North and gives aid, including medical aid (which might be entirely legal) to the JEM rebels. 

  Nazario denied both. He had not mentioned the six bombs confirmed by the UN, but did when asked by Inner City Press.

   It is a chess game, with the approach of the deadline on August 2 -- and even more so afterward.

  A very well placed Permanent Representative on the Security Council flatly told Inner City Press on Thursday that the August 2 deadline "won't be met."

  Sudan has problems not only on the border but in the capital. At Thursday's UN noon briefing Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey if Ban or Haile Menkerios had raised to Sudan the issue of detention of protesters, now including Girifna's Rudway Daud. No, appears to be the answer.

  Also in terms of answers, at least as of 1:10 pm, Sudan's  Ambassador or Mission had not come to reply. Watch this site.

To "Dismantle" Syria Mission, Ladsous Had Planes Waiting in Beirut, -Sources

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 26 -- Even before UN Peacekeeping boss Herve Ladsous sent half of the UN's Syria observers home this week amid anonymous quotes to Agence France Presse that, "they will not come back," he had prepared a total pullout and dismantling, sources told Inner City Press late Thursday.

   Well placed sources in the Security Council and Secretariat described UN Peacekeeping mission planes being moved to Beirut to wait to remove all of the observers. 

  When on July 20 the Security Council unanimously extended the UNSMIS observers' mission for thirty days, this planned total pullout was no longer possible.

  But mere days later, Ladsous directed half of the observers to leave the county. While Ladsous and his spokesman are, as they put it, "on the record" that they will not answer any Inner City Press questions, other pro-DPKO sources argue that even if strange, Ladsous was entitled, in the name of Ban Ki-moon, to order this reduction.

  But again, compare it to when UNMIS in Sudan expired: the UN took weeks and months to pull out, even while the Sudanese government wanted them all to leave. Here, the Syrian government has not asked UNSMIS to leave.

  Ladsous' rush to get out of Syria and "not come back" is a political one, consonant with France's and some others' position on the July 20 resolution but not its letter and spirit.

  As one Security Council member put it to Inner City Press, "that is not for Ladsous to decide, whether they will come back. There is a report to be written -- by the way, where has Ladsous put the UNSMIS report on Houla? And then it's up to the Security Council to consider it."

  Inner City Press at the UN noon briefing on Wednesday asked for more information about Ladsous sending the observers home, and even on how the announcement was distributed. "By DPKO," said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey.

  But since DPKO pointedly did not send the transcript of Ladsous' and Babacar Gaye's to all UN correspondents who actively report on Syria, Inner City Press asked Del Buey why his Office routinely re-sent out the announcements of Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan and his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi, but does not do so with the more "selective" DPKO of Herve Ladsous?

  What do Ban Ki-moon, his deputy and chief of staff think of and do about Ladsous, his acts and stonewalling? Watch this site.

On Child Soldiers Next to UK Forces in Somalia, UK Responds to Inner City Press' Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 -- The issue of child soldiers came onto the UN Security Council agenda under the rubic of "Children and Armed Conflict" and Western countries like France, the UK and Germany are the loudest on it, with India, Pakistan and Colombia on the skeptic side.

  So when Inner City Press, which covers the Council and the issue, was sent a set of captioned photographs featuring UK special forces and Somali children with guns midday on July 25, they were immediately turned into questions directed to the UK Mission to the UN by Inner City Press.

  The UK Mission spokesman, to his credit, turned around with fast answers, marked below in bold:

I must ask you for UK response to this in Dissident Nation

ICP question: are these UK special forces?

UK answer: The UK Ministry of Defence has deployed a small military support team to Mogadishu in support of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The team is working to provide support and advice in specific areas agreed with AMISOM and the activity that the team conducts is developed in conjunction with the African Union and AMISOM. The team is acting in an advisory rather than combat role, on functions such as assistance with stabilisation, strategic communications and medical support. However, they wear uniform and carry weapons for personal protection reasons. As part of this collaborative process with AMISOM, an element of the UK team was asked to accompany an AMISOM spokesman to the recently liberated area of Afgooye.

ICP question: what is the protocol for UK forces if they come upon child soldiers? In Somalia, specifically, and anywhere else the UK forces may have witnessed child soldiers.

UK answer:  Occasionally, in some areas of the world during the course of trying to assist foreign governments to improve security, British soldiers may inadvertently encounter young people carrying weapons. The UK condemns the use of child soldiers.

   The UK Mission spokesman also told Inner City Press, about the captions to the photos:

“…they show British special forces working alongside Somali child soldiers and troops of the African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in Afgoye, just outside the Somali capital.”

UK answer:  Not true. Several show a British soldier in a village. In one picture, he is talking to a child carrying a gun, but nothing suggests that he is “working” with that individual. That same child is seen in a different photograph taken elsewhere, apparently walking away from AMISOM soldiers near an AMISOM defensive position. There are no British soldiers in that photograph. So there is no indication from any of the pictures that British forces are “working alongside Somali child soldiers”.

“While some of the photos show British troops playing with the local children, other photos clearly show them working in the vicinity of child soldiers serving the army they were sent to support.”

UK answer:  See above. No they don’t.

“The United Kingdom is violating its own laws by sending its soldiers to fight alongside an army that has no issue with recruiting children for combat.”

UK answer:  Not the case. Our position is unchanged - we condemn the use of child soldiers. 

And to be clear, no British soldiers are fighting alongside anyone in Somalia. Not alongside the Somali armed forces, nor alongside AMISOM.

   It is still somehow unseemly to see UK special forces in Somalia right next to children holding weapons. What new Children and Armed Conflict representative Leila Zerrougui will say or not say about it will be interesting to see. Watch this site.

At UN, Weakness of Quartet on Palestine Decried, Blair & Syria in the Wings

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 -- As the Security Council gathered Wednesday for its periodic group therapy on the Middle East "and the questions of Palestine," with 41 speakers signed up, topics ranged from Syria and the bombing in Bulgaria to the Quartet, Palestine's debt and Israel's treatment of migrants.

UN envoy Robert Serry spoke first, saying among other things that the Palestinian Authority owes some $1.1 billion to banks, which he did not identify.

Palestine's Observer Riyad Mansour, his arm in a sling, ranged from detentions to settlements to a denunciation of the "so-called 'Levy Committee report,' a right wing, Israeli government appointed committee that... recommends the Israel legalize 'outposts,' a recommendation that defies international law."

Mansour ended by telling July's Security Council president Nestor Osorio of Colombia, "Muchas gracias."

Israel's Deputy Permanent Representative Heim Waxman began with the bombing in Bulgaria -- whose Permanent Representative has yet to express agreement with Israel's theory of the case -- and shifts to the treatment of bloggers in the West Bank, adding that the International Monetary Fund says the GDP in Gaza grew 20 percent in 2011.

The US was represented by Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who started with Syria and chemical weapons, shifted to Lebanon and then to "comprehensive Middle East peace." Might this include a Security Council trip to Palestine? One wag said, "Not before November."

Pakistan brought up the trip and invitation, saying that the trip should take place.

France's Gerard Araud speechified about Syria, saying that France will continue to support the opposition, including on the ground. One wondered, as in Libya, where France air dropped weapons into the Nafusa mountains, while now presenting itself with clean hands in the Arms Trade Treaty talks?

South Africa's Baso Sangqu extended things into Israel's treatment of African migrants, and then asked the question of the UN's weak role in the Quartet. We note, including on the issue of Palestine's debt to banks, that Quartet envoy Tony Blair is also back by JPMorgan Chase.

When the Council broke for lunch at 1:30, ten Arab Ambassador came to the televised stake out. Mansour asked Inner City Press, "Where are your colleagues?" 

But after Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative read a statment denouncing settlements and saying the Security Council trip should take place, he tried to leave without taking any questions.

"What about the Quarter," Inner City Press asked, "should it continue?"

The Saudi Ambassador stopped and replied, it should continue, but take up its responsibilities.

Syria, it should be noted, as not in this line up, but is scheduled to speak inside the Security Council on Wednesday afternoon. They often note that sessions said to be on Palestine are taking into other issues, now mostly Syria itself. Expect fireworks -- watch this site.

On Syria, As Ladsous Sends Half of Observers Home, UN Says "Won't Come Back," Selectively

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 -- That UN Peacekeeping boss Herve Ladsous decided to send one half of the UN observers home a mere half-week after the Security Council extended their mission for at least thirty days is one thing.

But questioning of Ladsous' actions escalated Wednesday in light of anonymous UN officials quotes, to Agence France Presse, that, "One hundred and fifty observers left Syria on Tuesday evening and Wednesday and they will not come back."

   As one Security Council member put it to Inner City Press, "that is not for Ladsous to decide, whether they will come back. There is a report to be written -- by the way, where has Ladsous put the UNSMIS report on Houla? And then it's up to the Security Council to consider it."

   Another Ambassador told Inner City Press that Ladsous is "intentionally misinterpreting Resolution 2059," which extended the mission for 30 days.

  Inner City Press went to the UN noon briefing on Wednesday and asked for more information about Ladsous sending the observers home, and even on how the announcement was distributed. "By DPKO," said Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey.

But since DPKO pointedly did not send the transcript of Ladsous' and Babacar Gaye's to all UN correspondents who actively report on Syria, Inner City Press asked Del Buey why his Office routinely re-sent out the announcements of Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan and his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi, but does not do so with the more "selective" DPKO of Herve Ladsous? It is a question we will continue to ask.

 Back on June 15, as Inner City Press exclusively reported that day Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations turned in a notice to Security Council members that the Observer Mission in Syria UNSMIS has limited its mobile activities as of 6 pm Damascus time that day.

  In fact, not only did then-chief of UNSMIS General Robert Mood not make that announcement until the afternoon of June 16 in Damascus -- witnesses tell Inner City Press UNSMIS went out on patrol on the morning of June 16, after Ladsous' notice.

  And so three times Inner City Press has asked the lead spokesman for Ladsous -- who openly and repeatedly refuses to answer any Inner City Press question -- and for Ban Ki-moon to describe Ladsous' role in limiting UNSMIS.

  With that still unanswered, after Inner City Press asked it three times and reported on it Wednesday morning, the Secretary General's spokesperson's office and not DPKO sent this:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 9:46 AM
Subject: Response to recent question
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Further to you recent question, during General Gaye's absence, Deputy Military Advisor Abhijit Guha will be officer-in-charge of DPKO's military affairs.

There, was that so hard? For Ladsous and his spokesman, apparently yes. Watch this site.

Despite the Dying in Darfur, UN Takes Less Interest, US Fixed on Kony

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 24 -- A year ago the debate on Darfur and extending the mandate of the UN - African Union mission there was tense, with Permanent Representatives of the P5 countries clashing on how the resolution should be phrased.

   This year despite continued fighting in Darfur, spilling over into South Sudan and Southern Kordofan, there is decidedly less interest. 

  During Tuesday's consultations, three P5 Permanent Representatives never came, and the two that did left as soon as they had spoken in consultations.

   Meanwhile the Permanent Representative of Sudan Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman spoke at length in the chamber, then afterward exclusively to Inner City Press. 

  He denied that his country had bombed into South Sudan, while saying it has the right to bomb in its own borders against those who are rebelling.

   He and outgoing envoy Ibrahim Gambari made much of the LJM formation, created in a sense to negotiate with the government and headed by a former UN staff member, al Sissi Tijani. JEM and the other factions are not much talked about.

   Afterward Inner City Press asked July's Council president about how real LJM is or isn't, and about the factions who've joined the Sudan Revolutionary Front. 

  Osorio said it is complicated, adding that he and unnamed other Security Council members will be going to Darfur in September.

  Inner City Press has been there, in trailers in the El Fasher camp which now has a new mansion. Ibrahim Gambari declined to speak at the stakeout but indicated he'll have a discussion with the Press quite soon. Inner City Press asked him Tuesday about one of the posts it's heard that he may take. I am considering all of my options, Gambari answered.

  In the Chamber, Gambari mentioned a bombing near Tawila on July 18 - the same day the UN sent Inner City Press this:

Subject: Your question on Darfur
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Jul 18, 2012 at 12:22 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

On 16 July, UNAMID's Team Site in Tawilla reported heavy shooting and impacts at Kushina village (approximately 29km south east of Tawilla, North Darfur).

Reportedly, a Government of Sudan military helicopter was shot down by an unidentified faction, which led to a firefight between the Government and the faction.

 On the resolution, Deputy Permanent Representatives and political coordinators, not only of the Permanent Five members, last week had meetings until 8 pm, tinkering with the resolution.

  One of Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman's big points was that Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army should not be mentioned in the resolution. 

  Afterward he told Inner City Press, Uganda is a long way from Sudan, the problem should be solved there. But the LRA hasn't been there for years. Some say the UK is not adamant that the LRA be in the resolution, but the US is. Can you say, Kony 2012? Watch this site.

In UN Sanctions Follies, Jim'ale Shifted to Somalia List, Eritrea Report Down, Bryden Spins

By Matthew Russell Lee, Partial exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 24, updated -- The UN's Somalia and Eritrea sanctions are a circus. A report on Eritrea was put online, then taken down after an Ethiopian UN official Taye Brook-Zerihoun spoke with some but not all Security Council members.

  Meanwhile the coordinator of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, the Canadian Matt Bryden, openly leaked his Group's report and was quoted about it by name, before it was given to Eritrea.

  Somalia too has criticized Bryden, as supporting the full or formal breakaway of Somaliland.

  Tuesday in front of the Security Council members from three countries gave Inner City Press exclusive and negative reviews of Bryden's performance. "He's leaving," one of them said. There is snarky speculation Bryden may have been angling for a book deal, or a post with a group like HRW.

Update: a Permanent Representative came out and told Inner City Press the problem with Bryden is speaking on his own for a "collective product." Others point at the report and wonder if it's really in the SEMG's mandate to analyze the Eritrean Air Force, down to the last spark plug, see report at Page 16. One wag asked, "A no fly zone via sanctions?"

  In a lower profile but more telling untold tale, an individual initially put on the Al Qaeda sanctions list was moved from that list earlier this year to the "list of individuals and entities subject to the travel ban, assets freeze and targeted arms embargo imposed by paragraphs 1, 3 and 7 of resolution 1844 (2008)."

  He is Djibouti national named Ali Ahmed Nur Jim'ale, described as the largest shareholder in the telecommunications firm Hormuud. Click here for Inner City Press coverage of Hormuud.

  The UN darkly notes that "Hormuud is operated by several former large shareholders of Al-Barakaat with Jim’ale being the largest shareholder." 

  Barakaat was a firm that got all of its money, and the small remittances of expatriate Somalis in cities like Minneapolis, frozen (stolen, some say) after a terrorism charge.

  The irony is that now the TFG's Somali Mission to the UN, or at least one vocal member of it, tells Inner City Press that Hormuud and by implication Jim'ale did nothing wrong.

  A well placed source exclusively told Inner City Press that the fact that Jim'ale was taken off the 1267 Al Qaeda sanctions list, but simply moved to another sanctions list with a lower threshold and no ombudsperson like Kim Prost, is a "travesty." But isn't Matt Bryden, and the take-down of the Eritrea report? So it goes at the UN.

  Defenders of the Jim'ale process, or of the UN Security Council, told Inner City Press that Jim'ale was taken off the Al Qaeda list and put on the Somalia list "without any linkage other than a member state who managed the transition."

  Another, going bigger picture, said it should be admitted that the UN sanctions is purely political and not legal, adding his view that Jim'ale should have been kept on the 1267 sanctions list too -- on a political basis. Even more so, this is how it goes at the UN.

Syria Said to Let in 62 Int'l Staff, Block Some from US, France, UK, Canada & Australia

By Matthew Russell Lee, Partial exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 23 -- As the UN on Monday sent the Press its Syria Humanitarian Bulletin, there was some information not mentioned in it.

  Some non-governmental organizations have urged Inner City Press to ask the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs about what they say is the Assad government's "total" blockage of international staffers, of which they say they also suffer. 

  They told Inner City Press that the government told OCHA aid can only be delivered by and through Syrian nationals.

   But Inner City Press has since exclusively learned it is the UN's (silent) position that Assad has let in at least 62 international humanitarians, while they say blocking staffers from five countries: the US, France, UK, Canada and Australia. 

  These blockages are not total, they say, other staffers from those same five countries are in.

  While there is an argument for sweeping the whole thing under the carpet, this is inconsistent with the shrill and often ill-informed communications strategy including on Syria of other parts of the UN system. 

 Meanwhile Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his head of Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous are said to be "sitting on" the UNSMIS reported on the killing as Houla, several Security Council members have complained to Inner City Press.

If you are going to give "news," you should do so even handedly and report what you know. Watch this site.

UNaccoutable on AIDS, Ban Ki-moon GIve Post to Kazatchkine Ignoring Global Fund Scandal & Exit

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 23 -- Even on a topic as serious as HIV / AIDS, the United Nations has become a sinkhole of patronage jobs, without accountability.

  Inner City Press has previously covered not only the failure of, but corruption in, the so called "MassiveGood" UNITAIDS fundraising program run by Philippe Douste-Blazy who spent over $500,000 for a 60 second video ad featuring Spike Lee and former US President Bill Clinton.Click here for first exclusive story, here for first follow-up.

  But just before this AIDS 2012 conference, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, July 20 doled out another UN envoy position, that on HIV / AIDS for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, giving it to Michel Kazatchkine of France.

  UNmentioned in Ban's four-paragraph appointment was the fact that Kazatchkine left the Global Fund earlier this year amid a management and even corruption scandal in Mauritania, Zimbabwe and Mali then probed by former Botswana President Festus Mogae former US HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt.  French magazine Marianne pushed the scandal into fundraising by Carla Bruno-Sarkozy, click here for that

   The Fund had to stop making grants and appoint a different General Manager, Santander banker Gabriel Jaramillo, amid calls for Kazatchkine to resign and be held accountable.

  Now a few months later he has a new post with the UN. And last week at UN headquarters in New York, France held another pitching event for UNITAIDS in Conference Room 5 of the North Lawn building, with not even the cursory acknowledgment of missing all of MassiveGood's promised fundraising targets that Inner City Press receives in response to questions in the UN briefing room, from UN envoy Ray Chambers and others.

  How UNaccountable can this UN become? The Friday before, on July 13, Ban doled out other such posts, including one on AIDS, another on "Global Education" to Gordon Brown. What's next? Watch this site.

As Six Ivorians Under UN Protection Are Killed, UN Admits to "Light Security"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 22 -- While ostensibly under UN protection, at least 6 Ivorian in the Niambly refugee camp were killed on July 20 and 5000 more were made homeless, nearly all of the Guere ethnicity perceived to support ousted president Laurent Gbagbo.

 Before 10 am on July 21, Inner City Press asked the spokesman for Department of Peacekeeping Operations chief Herve Ladsous, who has taken to refusing all Inner City Press questions, as well as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's top two spokesmen, for the

UN / DPKO position on how that camp near Duekoue in Cote d'Ivoire could be burned down and people killed while ostensibly under ONUCI protection. Is Mr. Koenders still in NY?

  The UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire, headed by Bert Koenders, is supposed to be focused on national and ethnic reconciliation following the joint military effort involving the UN and the French Force Licorne to oust Gbagbo.

   Six hours after the questions were posed, it was neither answered nor acknowledged, as we then reported.  But after 10 pm on Saturday, a response came in, which we appended in full, here, and publish herebelow, in full:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 10:35 PM
Subject: Côte d'Ivoire
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

In answer to your question about events in Côte d'Ivoire.

The Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Côte d’Ivoire, Arnauld Akodjénou, today briefed the media on events in the Duékoué area. The Mission condemns the attack on the IDP camp which resulted in the killing of 6 people and at least 15 seriously injured.  

UNOCI had light security arrangements in place for UN and NGO staff operating inside the camp, and contributed to securing the outer perimeter. Ivorian security forces had the primary responsibility for providing security for the Nahibly IDP site. 

At the time of the attack, 12 UN police were inside of the camp to provide security to humanitarian workers and control entry to the camp. In addition, 10 military officers were stationed outside of the camp. When several hundred youths approached the site in the morning of 20 July, UNOCI immediately called for reinforcements, which arrived shortly afterwards. Some of the demonstrators by-passed the entrance and pushed the wooden fences to enter the camp and set it on fire. UNOCI escorted humanitarian personnel out of the camp, assisted in evacuating some of the injured IDPs, and provided security to IDPs seeking shelter elsewhere.

UNOCI and national security forces are currently providing enhanced security at Nahibly camp, the Catholic Mission in Duékoué, and near the Mairie and Sous-Préfecture, where large numbers of IDPs have gathered.

UNOCI is conducting a full investigation of the incident.

  While we appreciate the answer and publish it in full upon receipt, it must be noted that the UN and DPKO have said they are conducting an investigation of their alleged direct killing of civilians in North Kivu in the DR Congo, but have yet to provide any updates. Will they here?  

  With much more delay, Haitians are still waiting for the UN to respond to formal complaints about the introduction of cholera by peacekeepers, a topic on which Ladlous directly and on camera refused to answer Press questions, along with why he and Ban have an alleged war criminal Sri Lanka general Shavendra Silva as an adviser. 

  When SRSG Bert Koenders was at the UN in New York this week and Inner City Press asked him about Duekoue, the site of earlier massacres of Guere and now this one, Koenders said he'd had asked for action by the government of Alassane Ouattara, who replaced Gbabgo.

  The UN is in fact proposing to remove a full battalion or 750 troops from Cote d'Ivoire, based on its assessment that things are safer and better.

  There remain troubling inconsistencies between Koenders statements in New York and the deadly events on the ground back in the Ivory Coast. We hope to have more on this. Watch this site.