UN
Lists Sudan's
Bashir As
Speaker for
Tomorrow in
UNGA, Of
Ladsous
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 25
-- When UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon met
with
Sudan on
Tuesday
evening, it
was not with
President Omar
al
Bashir, whose
been indicted
by the
International
Criminal Court
for
genocide. But
a member of
Ban's team, UN Peacekeeping chief Herve
Ladsous, had
met with
Bashir only in
July.
Representing
Sudan
on Tuesday
night was foreign
minister Ali
Karti.
Beyond
Ladsous, Ban
had with him
his chief of
staff Susana
Malcorra,
Department of
Field Support
chief Ameerah
Haq, his
Special
Adviser on
Africa, his
deputy chief
of of the
Office for the
Coordination
of
Humanitarian
Affairs, his
adviser on
sexual violence
and conflict,
and Haile
Menkerios.
It was a big
UN team --
though not as
big as the
UN team that,
twenty minutes
earlier, met
with Israel's
minister for
international
affairs. For
example, the
Department of
Public
Information
was at the
Israel
meeting, but
not Sudan.
But
where was
Bashir? He has
complained
that the US
has not come
through
with a visa.
Some take Ban
meeting with
foreign
minister Karti
as
signifying
that Bashir is
not coming, on
the theory
that a country
--
at least if
not one of the
Security
Council's
Permanent Five
members,
with whom Ban
is lunching on
Wednesday --
could not get
more than one
meeting with
Ban.
But
would Bashir
even ask to
meet with Ban?
And if he did,
would Ban (as
Ladsous did)
hold the
meeting?
It
is still
possible,
according to
UN documents,
that we will
find out. The
September
25 UN Journal,
in the section
called
"Forthcoming
Meetings,"
has the
General
Assembly
speakers' list
for September
26, including
as the second
speaker in the
afternoon
"2.
Address
by His
Excellency
Omer Hassan A.
Al-bashir,
President of
the
Republic of
the Sudan."
That's
in a UN
document --
like Ban's
chemical
weapons report
on Syria, it
HAS to be
true, right?
Even
"overwhelming."
Watch this
site.
, 
