For
Sudan
With UN Council Trip, a Plan B if No Referendum,
Bashir OK Unclear
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 4, 2010 -- A mere four hours before the UN Security
Council's trip to Africa and Sudan, the Council's “terms of
reference” were still not ready.
Council President for October
Ruhakana Rugunda was asked by the Press what the Council is seeking to
accomplish, in Sudan and Uganda, his country. “The terms of
reference are still being finalized,” he answered.
Inner
City Press,
which is going on and covering the trip, spent Monday morning
inquiring into and reporting on these terms of reference. A Council
member complaining that the United States and United Kingdom kept
control of all of the planning of the trip and its goals said that
“at least” some additional items were being added.
While
Ambassador
Rugunda declined to confirm, Inner City Press is informed that the
Council is looking into a “Plan B” if the referenda scheduled for
January 9, 2011 for South Sudan and Abyei are not held.
Also
significant,
until non Permanent members of the Council belatedly were consulted,
human rights in Darfur and children and armed conflict were not among
the trip's organizers' terms of reference.
Ruganda
was asked
by the Press about Sudan's President Omar al Bashir, who is indicted
by the International Criminal Court for genocide and war crimes.
Ruganda answered, as other Security Council diplomats have of late
while adding their hope that Bashir will be in Libya, that “the
Council has not asked to meet with President al Bashir, and he has
not offered to meet with the Council.”
Inner
City Press
asked if al Bashir had personally been informed of and agreed to this
trip, and to this construction. His senior
adviser Rabie Adbelati
Obeid has been quoted that al Bashir has not approved the trip.
Rugunda responded that the trip has been discussed with “the
authorities,” but declined to specify with whom.
Rugunda and Rice, two legs of trip, Bashir
and Terms of Reference not shown
Rugunda
mentioned
the Lord's Resistance Army rebels, who began in Uganda but are now as
far afield as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central
African Republic and, as may related to the Council's trip, South
Sudan. Will the Council raise the issue while in Juba? Watch this
site.
Footnote:
While
Rugunda will lead the Uganda leg of the trip, the Sudan legs
will be led by Susan Rice of the US and Mark Lyall Grant of the UK.
France's Permanent Representative Gerard Araud is not going on the
trip; nor are the Permanent Representatives of Russia, Nigeria and
Austria.
Requests have been made not to publicize some of the
logistics of and even some of the participants on the trip. But to
still have not made public the terms of
reference of the trip, less than six hours before the plane takes off
from John F. Kennedy airport? We will report and Tweet on the trip,
follow on Twitter on @InnerCityPress
* * *
As
Darfur
Rebel Nur Says UN Nears Genocide, UN Silent, Council Visit
Next Week
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 2, 2010 -- While Darfur rebel group of Abdel Wahid
Nur has threatened to suspend any cooperation with the UN - African
Union Mission UNAMID and the UN Security
Council embarks on a trip to
Darfur, Juba and Khartoum, the UN in New York has no comment.
Last
month Inner
City Press
published leaked documents indicating the imminent
transfer of five rebels from UNAMID to the Sudanese government for
prosecution but ostensibly not execution. UN spokesman Martin
Nesirky
refused to comment on the documents the following day, saying that
negotiations were continuing.
Then
rebel leader
Abdel Wahid Nur told Radio Dabanga that “if UNAMID agrees to a
handover, its task in Darfur will have finished and it will have
turned into an enemy and participant in the genocide with the
National Congress Party... this would bring about an end to the
cooperation between UNAMID and the movement.”
This
seeming
newsworthy, Inner City Press on October
1 while awaiting a visa to
enter Sudan to cover the UN Security Council's trip asked UN
spokesman Martin Nesirky for the UN's response:
Inner
City
Press: in light of those documents that emerged of Mr. Gambari
preparing a letter and terms of, and additional terms to Ali Karti of
Sudan — there has been a statement by Abdul Wahid Mohamed al Nur
saying that if UNAMID agreed to the hand-over, its task in Darfur
will be finished and will have turned into an enemy and participate
in the genocide with the National Congress Party and will bring about
an end to any cooperation between the Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur
faction and UNAMID. So I am just wondering what is, is the UN and
UNAMID aware of this statement, and what do they make of it? Do they
intend to go forward with its handover or do they not take it
seriously?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well, I would refer you to what I said, I think it was
earlier this week that this, as we’ve said, also not just earlier
this week, as we’ve, said this is a topic that has been the subject
of intense discussions and those discussions continue and they are
confidential. And I don’t have anything further to say on it.
UNAMID appraoched, imminent turn over of Kalma Five
not shown
Inner
City
Press: From those documents, things seem pretty close. I think
that’s what they are, the, the…
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well, Matthew, as I said, this is something that is
confidential and continues. It’s important that it’s done in
that way.
Inner
City
Press: But it doesn’t have, you don’t agree I would assume
that if they turn them over it would mean that UNAMID is somehow
complicit in genocide in Darfur. I guess I just want a response to
this comment.
Spokesperson:
I mean, I answer all kinds of questions, Matthew, but not
hypothetical ones.
But is
it
hypothetical? Watch this site.
* * *
Sudan
Trip
by UN Security Council and Press Set for Oct 4, Last Minute NCP
Questions, Did Bashir Say Yes?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 1, 2010, updated --
The trip next week to Sudan by the UN
Security Council and media including Inner City Press has been
confirmed, with the belated granting of visas by the Sudanese
consulate in New York on Friday afternoon.
To
some, the trip
is still in limbo. A senior official
of Sudan's ruling National
Congress Party Rabie Abdelati Obeid was quoted Friday afternoon
that
“We
got to know of this information from the media that the United
Nations Security Council will come to Sudan. But, up to now, I don’t
think our government has received any information to coordinate, or
to do the arrangement required for the U.N Security Council... I
doubt that this U.N. Security Council (team) will be coming without
informing our government. According to protocol, the president should
be aware and should know because he is responsible for each and
everything in the country. That is why I think such (a) visit will
not happen unless this is (first coordinated with the president’s
office) or through the proper channels.”
As
presented in
New York, the Security Council will travel from Uganda to Juba in
South Sudan, west to Darfur, then for meetings in Khartoum.
Apparently not part of the meetings is President Omar al Bashir, who
has been indicted for war crimes and genocide by the International
Criminal Court.
The US
and UK said they could or would
not meet with Bashir, and they said they were negotiating a mutually
acceptable arrangement.
“Don't ask,
don't tell” is the compromise that has been worked out: the Council
will not ask to meet with Bashir, and he won't ask to meet with them.
But, Inner City Press points out, he could just show up. He is after
all the president of the country.
NCP's Rabie Abdelati
Obeid, Bashir's green light for trip not shown
France had also
expressed opposition to meeting with Bashir, but French Permanent
Representative Araud will not be making the trip. Nor will Russia's
Vitaly Churkin, nor Nigeria's Joy Ogwu.
Churkin
nevertheless used a
Council meeting on September 30 to ask which journalists had asked to
go, and why the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General
needed to send anyone at all. Spokesperson Martin Nesirky has been
seen rather desperately speaking Russian with Churkin. It does not
appear that this has solved Nesirky's and his office's expulsion from
Council consultations.
Leaving
New
York on the evening of Monday, October 4, the Council will first
travel via a UN plane from Nairobi to Uganda and meet with President
Yoweri Museveni.
The troops he has dispatched to the African Union mission in Somalia
will be discussed, their compensation and whether in light of the
UN's Mapping Report alleging war crimes by the UPDF in the Democratic
Republic of Congo they will be withdrawn.
Then
on to Sudan,
apparently. Outside the Security Council chamber on Friday afternoon,
the Permanent Representative of a Permanent Five member of the
Council said, of course we are going, they have given us the visas
and we have the terms of reference. And
at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Inner City Press received its visa.
So what is the
NCP's Rabie Abdelati Obeid talking
about? Or does this reflect a
split in the NCP, perhaps to reveal itself more while the Council is
in Sudan?
As
noted above,
Inner City Press is going on the trip. The goal is to file five or
more pieces a day, wireless permitting. Watch this site.
, 
