After
S.
Sudan Deaths,
UN Says "We Do
What We Can,"
Denies
Urging Murle
to Flee
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 5 --
Following what
representatives
of the
targeted
Murle
community call
"ethnic
cleansing" not
stopped or
even
opposed by UN
peacekeepers
in Pibor
in South Sudan
over last
weekend,
the head of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous
spoke Thursday
to the
Security
Council then
the press.
Citing
reports
that UN
Peacekeepers
did not even
try to stop
6000 advancing
Lou Nuer
as they
approached the
town of Pibor,
but rather
urged the
Murle to
flee out of
town where
many of them
were killed,
Inner City
Press
asked Ladsous
what happened
to the UN
Mission's
"protection of
civilians"
mandate.
Ladsous
said, "We
do what we can
with what we
have." Video
here, from
Minute 1:33
(incomplete UN
audio).
While the
numbers are
smaller
here, to some
this resembles
what the UN
said during
and after
three
months of
ethnic
slaughter in
Rwanda in
1994.
Inner
City Press
asked Ladsous
if media
reports and
headlines that
the UN urges
Murle
residents to
flee were
false.
Ladsous, off
camera, said
"we
operate a
system of
early
warning," and
claimed that
it was
entirely up to
the residents
whether to
stay or go.
Again, echoes
of
Rwanda.
As Inner City
Press raised
on Ladsous'
way in,
and as since
noted by
others,
Ladsous spoke
in the
Security
Council for
France about
Rwanda during
the genocide
in 1994 as the
French Deputy
Permanent
Representative.
After
Thursday's
Security
Council
meeting, at
which for a
variety of
reasons UN
Peacekeeping
was not called
to account
even as it was
for example
after inaction
during a spree
of rapes in
Walikale in
Eastern Congo,
one Council
member told
Inner City
Press that
"the reports
of UNMISS to
flee
and those
fleeing
getting killed
are
troubling."
Another
discussed the
similarities
with Rwanda.
So
why didn't and
don't the
Security
Council
members hold
DPKO
accountable?
Several
Western
members have
been fighting
to reduce
costs in
peacekeeping,
even in
missions in
inter-state
conflict zones
like Abyei, so
they are
reluctant to
publicize
deaths that
result from
lack of
resources.
Other
Council
members are
big troop
contributing
countries and
would not like
their
contingents
called to
account for
mistakes.
Others still,
including
the
post-meeting
drafter the
United States,
support the
Government of
South Sudan so
much that they
do not want to
highlight any
failure by
the GOSS to
protect
civilians, or
worse.
And
so there is a
loophole, and
no
accountability.
(c) UN Photo
Ladsous &
Ban Ki-moon,
protection of
civilians in
Pibor not
shown
After all
other Council
members had
left, this
month's
Council
president Baso
Sangqu of
South Africa
told
Inner City
Press there is
some
discussion
expected in
DPKO of
"lessons
learned." He
did not answer
if this would
ever be
public, but
said that "the
Americans" are
draft
something
in response to
the morning's
briefing. And
that was it.
Footnote:
at
the end of
Ladsous
too-rare
stakeout,
Inner City
Press asked
him
again if DPKO
had yet signed
a Status of
Forces
Agreement for
the
mission in
Abyei. In
November, in
his last
stakeout,
Ladsous told
Inner City
Press that
such signing
was immanent,
before
refusing to
answer a still
unanswered
questions
about DPKO's
and MINUSTAH's
response to
the charge
they have no
standing
claims
committee
regarding UN
peacekeepers'
alleged
introduction
of cholera
into
Haiti.
Now,
despite the
fact that a
lack of a SOFA
for Abyei
played a role
in the bleed
out
death of
peacekeepers
there who
stepped on
mines and
couldn't be
promptly
evacuated,
DPKO has still
not signed a
SOFA for
UNISFA.
Inner City
Press on
Thursday
asked, what's
the hold up?
"No
particular
hold up,"
Ladsous said.
So
this DPKO
arguably
cannot or will
not protect
civilians, for
example in
South
Sudan -- and
now won't even
protect the
peacekeepers
serving in
blue
helmets, as
they continue
deployed
without a
Status of
Forces
Agreement
impacting
medevac and
other issues.
Watch this
site.
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