In
Abyei,
Sudan Says UN
Half Deployed,
UK Says SAF
Must Leave
Sept 30,
Frustration
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 27,
updated -- At
the last UN
Security
Council
meeting
about Abyei,
the still
acting chief
of UN
Peacekeeping
Edmond Mulet
told the Press
that Sudan had
committed to pull its
troops out of
Abyei by
September 30.
With
three days
to go before
that deadline,
Inner City
Press on
Tuesday asked
Sudanese
foreign
minister Ali
Karti if the
pull-out would
be
completed.
He
answered that
things are in
process but
noted that
"fifty percent
of those
forces are
there in
Abyei,"
referring to
the 4400
UNISFA
peacekeepers
mandated by
the Security
Council.
The
designated new
chief of UN
Peacekeeping,
Herve Ladsous,
has still not
appeared for
work in New
York, more
than three
weeks after he
was named by
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
Tuesday at
noon Inner
City Press
went
and asked
Ban's
spokesman why
only half of
the UNISFA
force has been
deployed, and
when the UN
understands
that the
Sudanese Armed
Forces
should leave.
Nesirky said
he would check
and answer,
but four hours
later nothing
had been
received.
UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant told
Inner City
Press that any
argument that
the rate of
UNISFA
deployment
justified a
failure to
pull out by
September 30
was
"disingenuous."
He said "we'd
be concerned
if that pull
out didn't
take place" by
the end of
the month.
Here
is a copy of
the agreement,
which Inner
City Press
obtained and
is
putting
online, here.
Inner
City Press
asked South
African
Permanent
Representative
Baso Sangqu if
UNISFA's
slow
deployment
could justify
Sudanese
delay. He
shook his
head,
"They have to
leave anyway.
It takes time
to deploy....
They
have to move."
Thus
it seems
clear that
Sudanese Armed
Forces are
expected to be
out of Abyei
in
three days.
But will they
be?
In Khartoum in
May, Rice
looks out,
Araud down,
Ladous not
shown
Inner
City Press
also asked
Karti about
being on the
US state
sponsor of
terrorism
list. He said,
"We don't have
any connection
with that
issue...
There are some
political
problems here,
There is no
yet real
determination
that Sudan
should be
removed from
that list.. We
know
and they also
know we don't
have any
connection
with
terrorism."
Sources
in
Khartoum say
that Karti is
being judged
on whether he
can get Sudan
removed from
the US terror
list. And if
he can't?
Update
of 5:10 pm --
in the
Quadpartite
meeting of the
UN, Ethiopia,
North and
South Sudan
taking place
in the North
Lawn building,
sources say
there is great
frustration,
"Sudan keeps
changing
things that
were already
agreed to."
Chicken and
egg: no full
deployment
without SAF
having pulled
out; SAF
apparently
won't pull out
until full or
near full
deployment.
Watch this
site.
Update
of
5:54 pm --
even as acting
DPKO chief
Edmond Mulet
told Inner
City
Press things
are going well
with UNISFA
(except, when
asked, with
SAF's pull out
from Abyei by
September 30),
China's
Permanent
Representative
Li Baodong
told Inner
City Press
that there
will be
"P-5
consultations
tomorrow about
Sudan." Watch
this site.
, 
in