At
UN,
Sudan Blocking
Abyei Medevac
Show Lack of
Planning,
Silence on
Censorship
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 8 --
Sudan opposing
a medevac
helicopter for
injured
peacekeepers
in Abyei who
later died
will be the
subject of a
UN
Security
Council
meeting Monday
afternoon.
Yet
to be answered
is what
planning the
UN did for
medevac,
including from
Wau in South
Sudan,
before paying
to deploy over
1000 Ethiopian
peacekeepers
to Abyei.
This
is what Inner
City Press on
Monday asked
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesman
Farhan Haq
about: does
the UN believe
it needs
permission
before flying
a helicopter
in from
another
country, and
what planning
was and is
being done, to
ensure more
peacekeepers
don't
needlessly
die? Video
here, from
Minute 4.
Haq
said that
outgoing
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
chief Alain Le
Roy
will discuss
this with the
Security
Council,
adding that
"the
main issue is
the vital need
to get airlift
as quickly as
possible."
Obviously
that's
true. But one
can imagine,
for example,
that
Afghanistan
and Pakistan
might block or
delay flights
of even
medical
helicopters in
from each
other's
territory.
This is so
foreseeable
that to not
consider it in
advance is
negligence.
In Wau, Lyall
Grant in light
jacket, Rice
on the mic, SC
planning not
shown
When
Inner City
Press reported
on the
Security
Council
negotiations
around their
resolution on
the Abyei
mission UNISFA
and to wrap up
the old UN
Mission in
Sudan, that no
Status of
Forces
Agreement
between the UN
and Sudan had
been signed
was admitted
on the
sidelines to
be a major
issue.
Alain
Le Roy told
Inner City
Press on
August 4 that
the "old UNMIS
SOFA is in
place." But
that SOFA was
drafted
between South
Sudan was a
country
independent
from Khartoum.
This was an
obvious
problem.
Even
before South
Sudan's July 9
independence,
when the
Security
Council
traveled to
Sudan earlier
this year
there was a
big debate
about how to
fly to
Abyei: through
Wau or
Kadugli, where
ICC-indicted
Southern
Kordofan
governor Ahmed
Haroun might
try to greet
the Council on
the tarmac. So
this was a
foreseeable
problem.
Will
the UN
continue to
lack
transparency
in its
planning,
including for
peacekeeper
safety, and
will the
Council be any
more
forthcoming?
Some have said
the situation
in Southern
Kordofan will
also be
addressed at
the Council's
meeting Monday
afternoon.
We'll see.
Footnote:
Inner
City Press
asked Haq if
Ban Ki-moon,
DPKO or the
Secretariat
has any
comment on
Khartoum
confiscating
the press run
of the
newspaper Al
Ahdath for
reporting on
the SPLM-North
and on
corruption.
Haq had no
comment,
saying that
the UN "agency
dealing most
with press
freedom is
UNESCO." So
the UN has
three
peacekeeping
missions in
and around
Sudan, but has
nothing to
say?
Quiet
diplomacy
indeed.
, 
in