On
Darfur,
As
UNAMID
Withholds Tabarat Report, Le Roy Says It's Public
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December
15
-- Amid complaints
that
the UN - African Union
Mission in Darfur does not investigate or publicly report the murder
of civilians there, top UN Peacekeeper Alain Le Roy on Wednesday
told
Inner City Press that the problem is Sudan's government granting
access.
Le
Roy acknowledged
continued lack of access to Jebel Marra. He claimed, however, that
UNAMID reports on killings like at Kalma Camp and Tabarat, where
UNAMID peacekeepers refused to go despite requests from the families
of those being slaughtered in September. Le Roy said that the UN's
reports, including on Tabra, are public.
But
UNAMID, which
after Inner City Press' visit to Darfur in October has refused to
answer e-mailed questions, has answered another request for its
Tabarat report with the following:
"A
report
on
the
Tabarat incident was sent to UN Headquarters in the
days following the event. This internal document is classified as UN
Restricted, thus not for public dissemination. There are no plans, at
UNAMID level, to release it.”
Inner
City
Press
asked
Le Roy why the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations would
refuse to release its report on an incident like Tabarat. Le Roy did
not answer, instead claiming that such reports are public. They are
not. And this is a problem.
While
Le
Roy
was
genial, he also did not answer Inner City Press' request for an
update on the plans of UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari, exposed by Inner
City Press, to hand over to the government of Omar al Bashir five
sheikhs in Kalma camp who support Fur rebel Abdel Wahid Nur.
Le
Roy did not
address what the US has announced as the postponement of any
referendum for Abyei, nor the bombings of Southern Sudan by
Khartoum's air force.
"
Le Roy & UN's Ban, who summoned Gambari re Tabra but now report
withheld
On
December 14,
Inner City Press has asked
UN
spokesman
Martin Nesirky:
Inner
City
Press:
Scott
Gration yesterday said that, apparently after this…
after having conferred with both parties, that the Abyei referendum
will not take place 9 January. And I am just wondering, I’ve asked
you this before, what’s the UN, given its role in… under the…
in the process, does it acknowledge the seemingly now conceded fact
that the referendum in Abyei will not take place 9 January?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
What
we’ve
said is that there is a commitment by all to
adhere to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and to the timetable that
is implicit in that. Everybody recognizes the difficulties that
there are with regard to particular part of the equation; and nobody
is suggesting it is easy. Those who are involved in this from the
United Nations side are obviously pushing to help to ensure that
things remain on track. As I have said before, and I’ve just
repeated just now, no one is suggesting this is easy. It is obvious
that there are difficulties there, and I know that many players in
this are trying to find a way that this can be tackled so that
everything remains on track.
Inner
City
Press:
Also
on Sudan, there are these, at least 200 Sudanese
refuges being deported by Israel. There’s a number of media
outlets who are reporting this today, quoting an unnamed Israeli
source confirming what others had said. There seems to be a UN
involvement. The UNHCR is quoted as saying as being involved and an
unnamed NGO. They are being deported through a third country and
back to Sudan since having been in Israel would cause them problems
in Sudan. But what I am wondering is, is it the UN system’s
position that it’s safe for these people to return to Sudan, and
what do they make of what some people are calling, you know, forced
or refoulement of Sudanese refugees back to Sudan at this time?
Spokesperson:
Well,
I
have seen the reports, I don’t have anything specific on
that. Please do try UNHCR to see if they have anything direct to
tell you.
Inner
City
Press:
I
guess, because of the Sudan… the DPKO and
peacekeeping presence, whether they have a position on the safety of
the return of these people.
Spokesperson:
Well,
Mr.
Le Roy will be here tomorrow.
But
when Inner City
Press on December 15 put the question to Le Roy, first Nesirky cut in
to refer the question against to UNHCR. Then Le Roy seemed to say
that those returning to Sudan, even from Israel, will not face any
harassment. We'll see.
Footnote:
While
allowing
other
media questions on two countries, Nesirky
pointedly told Inner City Press, one question only. Therefore
questions such as DPKO's seeming lack of planning before withdrawing
from Birao in the Central African Republic, and other questions about
the Cote d'Ivoire mission and about Somalia were not possible. Watch
this site.
* * *
On
Darfur,
As
UNAMID
Covers
Up Killings by Sudan, ICC Reports Them
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December
9
--
After the UN
refused
to release what it knows
about the killing of civilians at Tabarat and the destruction of
Soro
and other villages in Darfur in September, the International Criminal
Court's report unveiled in the Security Council on December 9 names
13 other destroyed villages (with Soro transliterated as “Souroo”),
and has witness quotes what it calls the government sponsored killing
in Tabarat (which it calls Tabra).
After
ICC
prosecutor
Luis
Moreno
Ocampo's presentation to the Security Council
on Thursday, Inner City Press on camera asked both him and Sudan's
Permanent Representative to the UN Dafallah Osman about the Tabra
killings and the destruction of villages.
Sudan's
Ambassador
said
that
the
killings were “tribal,” involving
kidnapping and promises to pay blood money. He praised UNAMID and its
leader Ibrahim Gambari (calling him a “seasoned diplomat”).
Inner
City
Press
asked
if
he thought UNAMID should release what it knows about the
Tabra killings. This, he did not answer, instead ranging from saying
that Ocampo's report shows NGOs were engaged in “espionage” to
claiming that Radio Dabanga was disseminating destabilizing and even
“genocidal” information.
Ocampo
had
stood
several
yards
away, unlike with the previous Sudanese Ambassador
Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed, whom Ocampo stood right next to
during their final stare down. When Ocampo came to the microphone,
Inner City Press asked him if he thought UNAMID was in essence
covering up Sudan's and Bashir's acts by not reporting on them.
Ocampo
said
that
UNAMID
is
under threat, that's why it doesn't report. This means
that UNAMID is not reporting, which is its job. What will Ban
Ki-moon, the Security Council and Obama administration do?
ICC's LMO close to Sudan's last Ambassador,
new backing away mirrored by UN- & US?
Earlier
on
Thursday,
Mark
Hanis
of the Genocide Intervention Network / Save
Darfur Coalition on a press conference call said Obama, Hillary
Clinton and Joe Biden campaigned on (among other things) protecting
civilians in Darfur, and named Samantha Power and Susan Rice as
officials. Hanis called them “disappointing” so far. Inner City
Press asked what UNAMID should do. Report, Hanis said. But UNAMID
does not.
On
both December
8
and 9, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Martin
Nesirky about
fighting and death in Darfur, including in Tabarat / Tabra:
Inner
City
Press:
a
request
made to UNAMID [African Union-United Nations
Hybrid Operation in Darfur] for the report that they were supposed to
do on the Tabarat killings of 2 September, near Tawilla, the one that
the Secretary-General summoned Mr. [Ibrahim] Gambari to speak about.
Anyway, somebody that asked him was told that there is no report for
external dissemination available on it, and I just wonder, what is
the UN’s final finding? Did it do the right thing, in apparently
not getting out to the site despite the warning by relatives of those
killed? Are all such reports confidential, and in which case, how is
the Security Council or the international community to assess the
level of violence and killing in Darfur if these new reports never
come out?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well,
that’s
a
very long question.
Question:
This
is
the
only time I’ll ask it, but if there is anything the UN
can say about those killings, I’d like to know.
Spokesperson:
Well,
I
hear
your question, I think, and let’s look into what the
Mission tells us.
More
than a full
day later, UNAMID has said nothing. When Inner City Press asked
again about UNAMID on December 9, Nesirky claimed he had already
answered questions, including about attacks the Sudanese government
had just bragged about.
In
assuming
Presidency of the Security Council for December, Susan Rice told
Inner City Press that UNAMID (and UNMIS) are required to investigate
and report on attacks on civilians. Does that mean report to the
public, as the ICC does? What will Susan Rice and the US Mission do?
The
press had been
told that Susan Rice would speak at the stakeout, where Ocampo and
Sudan's Ambassador did. But she did not. A reporter given advance
notice that she would not come was told that “one country” had
blocked the elements to the press that she would have read. But she
could have spoken, especially after what Sudan's Ambassador said,
including denying things that the US Mission has previously said,
about the Council's interlocutors being harassed and Radio Dabanga's
Khartoum office being shut down.
Footnote:
Inner
City
Press
also
asked Ocampo about Guinea -- he said he is
watching “national proceedings” -- and Kenya, where witnesses are
under threat. Ocampo answered by bragging that none of his witnesses
have been injured. But how about retaliated against, given what
Sudan's Ambassador said about the NGOs. Watch this site.
, 
