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As Sudan Breaks Abyei Agreement, Susan Rice Says Obama Will Meet With Kiir, Focus Lost?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 16 -- When President Obama came to the UN a year ago, the meeting on Sudan was a focus. This year the stated focus is Libya, with elephant in the room in Palestine and a possible US veto of UN membership. But is Sudan in better shape?

  Inner City Press on Friday asked Susan Rice if Obama "that things are better there than they were last year?" Rice expressed concern, then said Obama will meet with the president of South Sudan Salva Kiir. It's sure to be a feel-good moment, but what about Sudan proper?

  Amid bombing in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile state, even the supposed good new in Abyei has fallen apart, with Khartoum negotiator Omar Suleiman saying that contrary to UN claims his country has not agreed to pull out of Abyei by September 30.

  Inner City Press asked Rice and the UN about this. The UN provided Inner City Press with a copy of the agreement, here. Earlier on Friday, Sudan's Permanent Representative told Inner City Press that the Sudanese Armed Forces will only leave once the UNIFSA mission is fully deployed, which the UN denied.

  Rice when asked hearkened back to the underlying June 2011 agreement and advised Sudan to comply. But what's the leverage, especially if Obama's focus has moved on?


Obama previously at UN with Gaddafi ally Treki, plus ca change

From the US Mission transcript:

Inner City Press: On Sudan, I wanted to ask you this. That beyond just the fighting and bombing in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, there was an agreement that was announced by the UN in Abyei that Khartoum and Juba would both pull out, even before the UNISFA mission was fully implemented. And now Khartoum has said that that's not true-they didn't agree to that, that the UN misspoke. I wanted to know what's your understanding of when they committed to pull out. And, two, what-in President Obama's bilateral, what's the place of Sudan. I mean last year it was quite high profile on his visit. Does it remain that? Does he think that things are better there than they were last year? And what's he going to be doing here while he's here on Sudan?

Ambassador Rice: Well, with respect to the redeployment of forces from the Abyei area, the two sides signed an agreement and made a commitment to withdraw those forces, in fact, earlier in the process than we are today, and certainly long before the full deployment of UNISFA.

So we think that redeployment is overdue and needs to be accomplished urgently. And any suggestion that that wasn't in fact the agreement is belied by the document that both parties signed. Obviously, the United States remains very interested in, very committed to peace and security in Sudan, both the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan, and we're frankly quite concerned that many of the critical issues that need to be resolved between North and South remain unresolved. Many of the crucial aspects of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement remain unresolved and unimplemented and that, in and of itself, has the potential to be a spark that could ignite underlying tensions.

We're also very, very concerned by what is transpiring in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, where aerial bombardments, attacks on civilians and humanitarian crisis is continuing and intensifying. So that also is of concern, and, of course, we remain very much focused on what is transpiring in Darfur.

So there's no diminution in the U.S. government's focus on, or commitment to what transpires in Sudan. And as was mentioned today at the White House, President Obama will have the opportunity to meet briefly with President Salva Kiir of South Sudan during the United Nations General Assembly.

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At UN on Sudan, No Access to Blue Nile or S. Kordofan, No SOFA for Abyei, New Peacekeeping Chief Ladsous MIA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 9 -- Amid a surge in aerial bombing in Sudan, the UN Security Council met behind closed doors Thursday about Abyei and Blue Nile State, Southern Kordofan and South Sudan. The meeting had no outcome.

  The acting chief of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) Edmund Mulet told the Press he had an appointment. As Inner City Press asked of a Status of Forces Agreement has been reached for the UNISFA mission in Abyei where peacekeepers died while unable to be evacuated by helicopter from Wau in South Sudan, Mulet said not yet, and left.

  On Friday Inner City Press asked the UN's Deputy Spokesman Eduardo del Buey when the UN plans to put in place a Status of Forces Agrement, and how it deploys peacekeepers without a plan to medevac them.

  Del Buey said to "ask DPKO" -- but how? Nor has there been any answer on when the new French head of DPKO Herve Ladsous, named on September 2, will begin.

  Later on Friday after Council president Nawaf Salam read a press statement on 9/11, Inner City Press asked him about the previous afternoon's Sudan consultations, reminding him that at his beginning of presidency briefing he'd committed to come out and speak after the Sudan session.

Salam nodded and said there had been three consultations. Of these, asked about possible outcomes by Inner City Press, Salam predicted a follow up and outcome only on changing the Abyei mission's mandate, reportedly to include some border review. Apparently there are other priorities in the Security Council at present.

Meanwhile fallout continues from the currency war between Khartoum and South Sudan. Khartoum set a deadline to convert to or exchange into its new currency; this led to crowds outside the Central Bank in Khartoum pleading for an extension that was not granted. And so it goes.

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

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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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