As
Sudan Ejects
20 UN Staff
from Darfur,
What'd
Ladsous'
Bashir
Meeting Do?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 6 --
Now that Sudan
has blocked
the visas of,
and
"ejected," 20
UN staff from
Darfur,
additional questions
are raised
about what was
accomplished
by UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous
meeting with
the country's
International
Criminal Court
indicted
president Omar
al Bashir.
The
UN under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon says
it has a policy
of only
meeting with
ICC indictees
on a "strictly
necessary"
basis.
But little was
said of the
goals or
"accomplishments"
of
Ladsous'
meeting with
Bashir.
There
is a breakdown
in the system
here. Human
Rights Watch,
which
continues to
brag about
Bashir having
left Nigeria,
while citing
the
blocking of
Bashir's
airplane by
Saudi Arabia,
has said
nothing about
Ladsous' face
time with
Bashir.
HRW
chief Ken
Roth
characterized
Bashir's trip
to Nigeria as
an attempt
to
"rehabilitate"
himself.
But doesn't
face time with
a UN
official, even
this one,
similarly
represent a
rehabilitation
attempt? How
can HRW have
nothing to say
about it?
Some
say that,
beyond the
HRW's more and
more obvious
softness on
the UN,
which its UN
lobbyist
Philippe
Bolopion
previously of
Le Monde
and
France 24 has
admitted is in
order to
maintain
"access" to
the UN, the
silence on
Ladsous is
related to
HRW's Roth's
support for
his position
on Eastern
Congo and
Rwanda.
Inner
City Press on
Tuesday at the
UN noon
briefing asked
Ban's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
if the UN say
any comment
about Bashir's
plane
being blocked
by Saudi
Arabia.
Ban tried to
assuage Latin
countries,
which met
with him
yesterday,
with a
statement
about the
plane of Evo
Morales.
But there was
no comment
Tuesday at
noon.
Amid
reports of at
least one
Sudanese
soldier killed
in Heglig,
Inner City
Press asked
for whatever
the UN knew
about the
clash. They're
read
the reports;
they might
have more.
Inner City
Press asked a
Sudan
Mission to the
UN diplomat
about it
Tuesday
morning, he
called it a
one time
occurrence.
Watch this
site.
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