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.
, 
