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As UN Sits on S. Kordofan Report Until August, Silent on Mass Graves, Sudan Blocks Visas to Abyei for Rights Monitors

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 28 -- The UN's report on war crimes in Southern Kordofan, including inaction by UN peacekeepers, won't be released until “the first days of August,” Inner City Press was told Thursday by Ivan Simonovic, the New York representative of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.

  Thirteen days ago, Simonovic said it would be released in two weeks. After that, Inner City Press put a copy of it online, here. Still the UN calls it a “leaked” report that is being edited. Will the portions critical of UNMIS peacekeepers be excised?

  Simonovic also told Inner City Press he asked the Security Council for support of visa request for civilian supporters of the new UNISFA force of Ethiopian soldiers in Abyei.

  Meanwhile a Sudanese diplomat praised Simonovic to Inner City Press, quoting Simonovic as saying he "has no mandate" in Southern Kordofan.

  An unresolved question is who in the UN would be held responsible for inaction by UN peacekeepers in Abyei and then Southern Kordofan.

 A day after former UNMIS force commander Moses Obi refused to answer questions referred to him by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the overall UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told Inner City Press “you've made your point on camera” and declined to say who was responsible for the former UNMIS.

  It is often said that armies should hold commanding officers responsible after the fact. But the UN seems to be saying that once a peacekeeping mission expires, no one speaks for it anymore, and by implication, no one is responsible.


Simonovic & Ban Ki-moon, action on S. Kordofan not shown

  This is a question that Simonovic should answer, as well as a question Inner City Press asked at Thursday's noon briefing with Nesirky, for the UN's response to Southern Kordofan's governor (and ICC indictee) Ahmed Haroun admitting moving and mass-burying corpses. Mr. Simonovic will make himself available and address it, Nesirky said. So we'll be waiting - watch this site.

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As in S. Kordofan Indicted Governor Spins Press, UNSC to Get Simonovic July 28

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 26 -- As Southern Kordofan governor Ahmed Haroun, already indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, claims that the goal of his war is peace, in New York the requests for a Security Council briefing by top human rights official Navi Pillay will result Thursday afternoon session, but only with her deputy Ivan Simonovic, Inner City Press has learned.

  Several Security Council members specifically asked that Pillay be the briefer, on the topic of a report jointly by her Office and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which is criticized in the report.

  Already Simonovic reportedly stopped short of supporting the recommendation that the actions and failures to act detailed in the report be referred to the International Criminal Court.

  Meanwhile ICC indictee Harun in a Khartoum press conference claimed that “we are doing our best to keep the length of this conflict as short as possible, because we believe that military operations are not a goal, but are a tool to push the other side to the negotiating table.”

  Look how well that worked in Darfur...


Ban, Nesirky, Nambiar & Orr, action on UN inaction not shown

  Here's in Harun's history in S. Kordofan, summarized by a source:

Ahmed Haroun was Deputy Head of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) during the late 80s and early 90s in Kadugli. He played a large role in a genocidal campaign to eliminate the Nuba tribe from southern Kordofan, where he was stationed then. There are numerous mass graves that he is personally responsible for; one of them is underneath the UN airport built there five years ago.

When he left for Darfur, he immediately re-organized the PDF (aka Janjaweed, government militias) ; in 1994 he established a long relationship with the Lord's Resistance Army from Uganda, a relationship that has continued to recently provide these criminals with weapons and refuge in South Darfur. While there, he organized a personal paramilitary group made up of the cream of the Central Reserve Police (paramilitary organization created by Bashir), the Border Security Gurads (another paramilitary organization also created by Bashir) and led by the PDF commanders which he chose. They all came to Southern Kordofan with him after his appointment as Governor of that unfortunate state in 2009.

He meets with his good friend Ali Kushaib every weekend planning the coming genocide of the Nubas, part of who stupidly voted for him helping him to "win" the recent elections there, thanks also in part to pre-filled ballot boxes. Ali Kushaib lives in Debeibat in the northern part of the Southern Kordofan and is currently re-organizing the PDF (whom he led in Darfur) in order to accelerate their participation in the Nuban genocide.

  So can Ahmed Harun (or Haroun) be subject to a rare second referral to the International Criminal Court? And what could Navi Pillay be doing this week that is more important? Watch this site.

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Sudan Slaughter of 150 Nubans Frozen in UN Edit Room, Rudderless Peacekeeping

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 21 -- While the UN holds a report that that one of its staff members in Sudan saw the piled corpses of 150 people of Nuban descent in South Kordofan, it insists that because the report is a “leaked draft,” it cannot or will not take action on its yet.

  On July 21, the day after Inner City Press put the full report online, it asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky about this paragraph:

28. An UNMIS staff member who was detained by SAF at their military facility in Umbattah Locality reported during his detention, that he saw over an estimated 150 dead bodies of persons of Nuban descent scattered on the grounds of the military compound. Some of the bodies appeared to have bullet wounds and he reported a large quantity of blood on the ground. He reported a SAF soldier told them that they had all been shot dead.

  But Nesirky cut Inner City Press off in the middle of the paragraph, to insist this is only a draft. From the UN's July 21 transcript:

Inner City Press: I am still looking at this report that was put out by the human rights component of UNMIS [United Nations Mission in Sudan]. One of the many things said in it is that --

Spokesperson Nesirky: Let’s just roll back a bit, and I am sorry to interrupt you, but it is not a report that has been put out by UNMIS, it is an as yet un-finalized report that was leaked. So let’s get the context correct.

Inner City Press: Let’s say this: the leaked report says that an UNMIS staff member witnessed 150 dead bodies of Nuban descent in a military facility in Sudan. So, my question is, even though it’s a leaked report, it seems to be such a serious allegation that it seems strange that the UN would say, we’re going to wait two weeks to finalize it. What is being done, since that 150 dead bodies was witnessed by a UN staff member? What actions have been taken, even while the actual document itself is being finalized?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I am sure that the relevant people, and you’ve heard Ivan Simonovic speaking on this topic, will have been seeking to follow up on it. And as you heard Mr. Simonovic say, there are efforts to gain access, so that there can be the kind of follow-up that you are talking about. And if Mr. Simonovic has any further follow-up on that, then obviously I’d let you know.

Question: And just one more on peacekeeping. Today at the stakeout, Mr. Le Roy said that he’s leaving on 10 August. So that seems to be coming up pretty quickly. Without, I guess, getting into the names, is there are going to be a new Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations on 10 August, or when is the process thought to come to a conclusion? Is there a shortlist, et cetera?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I would doubt that there would be a new Under-Secretary-General in place to take over the day after Mr. Le Roy leaves office. Obviously there are, there is an established procedure for having an officer-in-charge until a new Under-Secretary-General is appointed. And when we get to that stage, an announcement will be made.

  At the Security Council stakeout on July 21, Le Roy told Inner City Press that the report would not be finalized by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations until two weeks after Mr. Simonovic spoke to the press last week. That would be the day after Le Roy's final press conference, and just before he leaves with no successor in place.

  Meanwhile, as to the future in Southern Kordofan, Inner City Press asked Nesirky:

Inner City Press: there has been this quote by the Foreign Minister of Sudan, Ali Karti, that there is an openness on the part of Khartoum to, quote, “foreign troops” in Southern Kordofan. Has the UN been informed of that? What does the UN think of that statement?

Spokesperson: We are certainly aware of the statement, and we’re following up with the Sudanese authorities to try to understand in greater detail what that means.

  But who in the UN is following up with what Sudanese authorities? Watch this site.

Click for July 7, 11 BloggingHeads.tv re Sudan, Libya, Syria, flotilla

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

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These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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