At
UN
on Darfur, Dispute about “Enabling Environment" for DPP But a 15-0
Vote, Reference to ICC Referral Removed
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 29 -- Disputes about how much the UN Security Council
should try to “pull the strings” of the Darfur
Peace Process as
one member put it caused three delays of Friday's vote to renew the
mandate of the UNAMID peacekeeping mission: from three to five to
six pm.
Ultimately
the
Council voted 15-0 for a resolution which refers to needing an
“enabling environment” for the Darfur Peace Process. Inner City Press
is putting
the resolution online, here.
A source well-placed in the negotiations told Inner City Press that the
US didn't want reference to UNAMID's "further" engagement in the DPP --
perhaps wanting no engagement at all.
South
African
Permanent Representative Baso Sangqu told Inner City Press that
giving the Security Council a “veto” over UNAMID's participation
in the Darfur Peace Process “undermined the African Union.”
In
the chamber Sangqu said he was disappointed with the Council's “timid”
approach to following the AU's embrace of the DPP. Nigeria and Gabon
also took the floor to this effect.
After
the vote, UK
Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant explained to Inner City
Press that the first step will be the Secretary General's report, to
see if the enabling environment has been created.
The US,
represented by its Deputy Rosemary DiCarlo spoke only in the Chamber
where she said the Council will also listen to the AU in deliberating
if the enabling enviroment exists.
Specifics
about
this “enabling environment” are in the resolution's seventh
operative paragraph, the one most objected to by African and other
members. Other references were moved to the perambular, that is
non-operative, paragraphs.
India's
Deputy Permanent Representative Mandeep Singh Puri, who did not speak
in the chamber after the vote, told Inner City
Press that UNAMID is a hybrid with the AU, and the UN should respect
the AU.
Russia's
Deputy
Permanent Representative Sasha Pankin told Inner City Press that the
Council shouldn't “pull the strings” of UNAMID, but “how” the
Mission participated in the DPP was up to the Council, since UNAMID
is a creature of the Council.
A
Sudanese
diplomat bragged that the negotiations took out of the draft any
reference to Resolution 1593, which referred Darfur to the
International Criminal Court and requires ICC briefings of the
Council. President Omar al Bashir and Southern Kordofan governor
Ahmed Haroun, among others, have been indicted after the Resolution
1593 referral to the ICC.
(The
UK's Lyall
Grant acknowledged reference to Resolution 1593 had come out, but
pointed to a perambular paragraph about justice.)
Gambari being "interviewed" by UN:
Kordofan answers and DPP enabling enviro not shown
Meanwhile
regarding
Southern Kordofan, Inner City Press on
July 29 asked UN
spokesman Martin Nesirky
Inner
City
Press: the SPLM-North — and you will see where I am going with
this — they say that they have now surrounded the city, Kadugli in
Southern Kordofan, and have blocked the airport; they say so to stop
the aerial bombardment in the Nuba Mountains. And I understand that
the UN doesn’t, you know, all the things that you’ve said, that
they can’t patrol, but it strikes me if, if the UN — and I don’t
know how many troops are still left there of the Egyptian battalion —
but is the UN, can the UN confirm or say something about reports of
now the surrounding of Kadugli, the airport being closed, since that
would even impact on the UN’s ability to get its peacekeepers out? Is
there any knowledge of what’s happening there?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
My colleagues in Peacekeeping Operations are seeking to
provide information, including on the number of peacekeepers who
remain in Southern Kordofan. I don’t have that information to
hand. We have asked for it. But the fact remains, as you have
mentioned yourself, I have made it clear before that the peacekeepers
who are there and have not yet been able to leave, they do not have a
mandate to patrol or indeed to operate in any way. Should there be
something that they are passing back to Headquarters, then obviously
we would make that known. But to my knowledge that is not the case.
In
fact, outgoing
DPKO chief Alain Le Roy told Inner City Press later on July 29 that
he thinks the remaining peacekeepers in Southern Kordofan cannot
legally report, only the staff of the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights can, and they cannot get visas.
So
the UN is in
Southern Kordofan, but says not only that it cannot DO anything, it
cannot even report anything. A Council diplomat whom Inner City
Press asked about this on Friday called it “awkward.” That is
being diplomatic.
* * *
At
UN
on
Darfur,
2 Views of Gambari, Silence on S. Kordofan & JEM
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July
22,
updated -- With Darfur the topic in the UN Security Council
on Friday morning, Inner City Press asked Council diplomats about
Ibrahim Gambari's new double job, replacing Djibril Bassole as Darfur
mediator while keeping his UNAMID job.
“It's only for
three months,” UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant told
Inner City Press. “There are still some issues to work out with
[Djibril] Bassole, who wanted to stay involved. And if the state of
emergency is not lifted, there is not Darfur Peace Process.”
South
Africa's
Permanent
Representative
Baso Sangqu also told Inner City Press that
the state of emergency should be lifted, but was critical of setting
conditions before the Darfur Peace Process could begin. Let it begin,
he said, on the ground in Darfur.
Some
of
the
rebel
leaders who don't live in Darfur, it was implied, might be isolated
by such a process.
Lyall
Grant
also
said
that Gambari's “contract expires at the end of the year.” Inner
City Press went to the UN's noon briefing and asked Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky to confirm this, and
that Gambari is the new joint mediator on Darfur.
Nesirky said
he
couldn't confirm or comment on either, that he would look into it.
(He also said the UN cannot confirm events in Southern Kordofan,
including if any of its peacekeepers have in fact left the war torn
area -- while activists are by contrast calling for limited
intervention, click
here
for
that.)
Later
when
Gambari
emerged
from the Council, after a “bilateral” meeting with
Brazil's Permanent Representative Viotti, he graciously agreed to
answer questions at the stakeout. Inner City Press asked about
continued aerial bombing by the government in Darfur.
Gambari called
it unacceptable but said that in Darfur from January to May 2011
there were 400 deaths due to armed conflict and that “in South
Sudan there were four times that many.”
He
noted that
several Darfur rebels leaders are not in Sudan, specifying that Abdel
Wahid al Nur, once in Paris, is now in Kampala. And what about
Khalil Ibrahim in Tripoli?
Inner
City
Press
asked
Gambari if he is “the new Bassole.” He laughed and said
that because Bassole had been named foreign minister of Burkina Faso
-- this happened after a mutiny against president Blaise Campoure --
Bassole could not “practically” remain as Darfur mediator, due to
“accountability.”
Gambari
said
he
is
the mediator “ad interim.” He declined to comment on the arrest
of SPLM leaders in Nyala in South Darfur or on whether the JEM rebels
are fighting with SPLM-North in Southern Kordofan. So how many
death,
especially of civilians, due to armed conflict have there been in
Southern Kordofan? We'll have more on this.
From
the
UN's
transcript
of its July 22, 2011 noon briefing:
Inner
City
Press:
just now in front of the Security Council during the
Darfur briefing, it was said that Mr. Gambari is going to be now
taking over from Mr. Bassolé for three months. And one Permanent
Representative said that’s because his contract expires at the end
of the year. What’s the UN’s understanding of whether he is
going to be wearing those two hats and for how long, and is it true
that his contract, I guess UN or UN-AU contract, expires at the end
of the year?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I
have to look into that, I don’t know.
Inner
City
Press:
But is he the new mediator, Doha process mediator?
Spokesperson
Nesirky
:
The answer I just gave you applies to everything you said.
And
five hours
later there was still no information from the UN Office of the
Spokesperson, even after what Gambari himself said...
, 
in