Sudan
Actions
in
NY as UN Council's Trip is Stalled, China Warns of Bashir
Humiliation
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September
19 -- The UN Security
Council's planned trip to
Sudan remained stalled on Sunday, as the UK, France and US oppose
any
meeting or photo op with Omar al Bashir.
Inner
City
Press asked a
Permanent Five member of the Council's ambassador if there was any
movement and was told of a dinner hosted by Sudan on Monday night
near the UN, at which Vice President Taha will be pushed “to
clarify.”
Later
on
Sunday,
Inner City Press sought to ask US Ambassador Susan Rice about the
trip, as she walked from the meeting of the Panel on Global
Sustainability to a reception, but was given no answer.
Elsewhere
in
New
York on Sunday, Sudanese activists Albaqir Mukhtar and Salih Osman
Mahmoud spoke at Lincoln Center at a poverty event alongside a group
fighting deaths on the road , while members of the Sudanese diaspora
rallied in front of the UN. (Click here for a description of
the rally by Bec Hamilton, and photos including the one below.)
Rally outside UN on Sept 19 by Bec Hamilton, UNSC
trip not shown
On
the sideline of
the Security Council's last meeting, the Permanent Representative of
a Council member which is a member of the ICC told Inner City Press
of a willingness to meet and greet Bashir, adding that the US and UK
Ambassadors could just “stay in the hotel watching CNN.”
But
Inner City Press is told by involved sources that China has
warned Sudan that the US, France and UK may “try to humiliate”
Bashir, and to watch out for it. So the stand off continues. Watch
this site.
* * *
Sudan
Trip
by
UN
Council Stalled by Bashir Photo Op Concerns, P-2
Discussions
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September
17
-- The Sudanese trip of the UN Security
Council, initially slated for early October, is in jeopardy of being
canceled. Sudan has indicated that if the Council visits, a meeting
and photo opportunity with the country's President would be required.
This week several
Permanent Five members of the Council told Inner City Press that
their Ambassadors could not meet with Omar al Bashir, due to his
indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and
genocide.
While this
prohibition is presented as a matter of law, three of the Permanent
Five are not members of the ICC, and therefore appear under no
prohibition from meeting with indictees. Thus it is a matter of
choice, of politics and of perception.
On September 16, a
self described senior US official told Inner City Press that
“With
respect to a potential Security Council mission [to Sudan], we've
talked informally in the Security Council since the beginning of the
year [including] about the obvious complication that such a trip
poses. You guys know that the Security Council referred the issue of
Sudan to the International Criminal Court, and there the outstanding
indictments, and that's a political fact. We have some legal
realities that can't be ignored. We're still frankly talking amongst
ourselves about how to deal with them. And it's not clear whether
they can be dealt with adequately to enable a trip in the near term.”
A non-Permanent
member of the Council that is a member of the ICC but say it would,
given the stakes for Sudanese civilians, be willing to go and meet
Bashir complained to Inner City Press that so far the discussion of
this issue has been confined not even to the full P-5, but rather to
the assigned leaders of different legs of the trip as planned: the US
(for South Sudan) and the UK (for Darfur).
"Real diplomats don't run scared of photo ops
when people are threatened with death," the complainant argued to Inner
City Press.
Inner City Press
asked the senior US official about this concern and the response was
that “We always have conversations about P-5 and those
conversations always end up in the larger Council.” The US official
added that of course, approval of any trip would require the
involvement of all 15 member of the Council. But cancellation of the
planned trip can be done by a mere two members?
Bashir with UNAMID's Gambari, April 2010, US/UK not shown
With the high
profile September 24 meeting on Sudan at the UN coming closer, some
wonder if with the involvement of Sudanese Vice President Taha and US
President Obama, the stumbling blocks could be overcome.
Among the
suggestions are that some Ambassadors simply stay in their hotel
while others meet Bashir, or that they attend but not shake Bashir's
hand.
Inner City Press
covered the Council's 2008 trip to Sudan (as well as Kenya, Djibouti,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Cote d'Ivoire) and
witnessed then US Deputy Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff, UK
Permanent Representative John Sawers and French PR Jean Maurice
Ripert meeting with Bashir and other Sudanese officials.
That was
then; this is now. Watch this site.
* * *
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