Sudan
Claims Media
Lies about
Bombs, Ladsous
Spins SOFA,
Refuses Haiti
Query
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 11 --
Sudan's and
South Sudan's
Ambassadors
traded
accusations
Friday at the
UN. South
Sudan's
representative
David
Choat spoke of
the bombing of
the Yide
refugee camp
in Unity
State.
Sudan's
Permanent
Representative
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman denied
the bombing.
Inner
City Press
asked about
reports by BBC
and Reuters,
of bomb
craters in
the camp and a
white
Antonov-like
plane flying
away.
Daffa-Alla
Elhag
Ali Osman said
these are
"biased
media." He
counter-accused
South Sudan of
sending its
"Battalion
Number Four"
to aid
the SPLM-North
in Blue Nile
and Southern
Kordofan.
He said the new
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous
agrees that
South Sudan is
blocking
access by the
Miseriya
herdsmen from
the north.
Video here.
Inner
City Press
asked Choat
about this,
and he said
that Ladsous
praised South
Sudan
president
Salva Kiir for
saying that
such blocking
will not be a
problem.
When Inner
City Press
asked Choat
about South
Sudan's
lock-up of
journalist
Ngor Garang
for what he
wrote about
Salva
Kiir's
daughter
marrying a
foreigner,
Choat said the
case is being
investigated.
Video here.
But
investigated
for what?
When
US Ambassador
Susan Rice
came out,
Inner City
Press asked
her about
Khartoum's
crackdown in
Southern
Kordofan, and
the lack of
humanitarian
access. Rice
expressed
concern about
access in both
Southern
Kordofan and
Blue Nile
State, and
said she hoped
those in the
UN in charge
of
humanitarian
affairs would
take action.
Video here,
Q&A below,
full transcript
on US
Mission
website.
Speaking
of UN
officials were
are supposed
to take
action, it was
said that the
new
head of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous
would speak to
the press on
Thursday, but
he did not.
(c) UN Photo
Ladsous in
suit in Sudan,
answer on
Haiti and to
Haitians not
shown
By
noon on
Friday, after
the two Sudans
and
US Ambassador
Susan Rice had
all spoken,
Ladsous had
still not
taken
questions. So
Inner City
Press asked UN
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
a
simple
question: why hasn't
the UN put in
place a Status
of Forces
Agreement for
its mission in
Abyei, the
absence of
which played a
role in the
death of
peacekeepers
who bled out
from a
landmine
during
a medevac
delay?
You
can go ask Mr.
Ladsous,
Nesirky said,
if you put
your skates
on. But when
Ladsous
arrived to
speak after 1
pm on Friday,
the stakeout
lights and
camera
were off. A
question was
asked, "Who is
that guy?" One
wag, not
having seen
Ladsous since
he was handed
the job months
ago,
wondered if he
was a tourist
asking to have
his picture
taken in
front of the
Council
members'
flags.
Finally
it began,
with Ladsous
speaking
softly about
the "mutual"
accusations
of the two
Sudans who he
said had
"consummated
their
divorce."
Inner City
Press asked
why there is
no SOFA in
place in
Abyei;
Ladsous said
there is no
problem, it is
nearly done.
Inner City
Press asked
whether under
Ladsous'
Department's SOFA
in Haiti, a
standing
claims
committee had
been
established,
for the claims
of
those injured
by cholera
alleged
introduced to
Haiti by UN
DPKO.
(Ladsous
previously
urged the
departure from
Haiti of
elected
president Jean
Bertrand
Aristide, click here
for that
coverage.)
On
November 11
Ladsous
refused to
answer on
Haiti, saying
"that is a
different
issue, I am
talking about
Sudan." He
left the
stakeout. For
video click
here, from
Minute 3:09.
This compares
unfavorably to
Ladsous'
predecessor
Alain Le Roy,
who spoke to
the Press and
took question
on
topics ranging
from Cote
d'Ivoire to
Lebanon to
Congo and
Haiti. But
so it is going
at the UN --
watch this
site.
As
transcribed
by the US
Mission to the
UN:
Inner
City
Press: What
about the
fighting in
Southern
Kordofan? You
spoke
about North
and South. You
know, fighting
that seems
that a lot of
this has to do
with Sudan
sort of
blocking off
the area, not
allowing
humanitarian
access. What
does the U.S.
think about
the fighting
in
Southern
Kordofan? What
should be
done?
Ambassador
Rice:
We're gravely
concerned
about the
fighting in
Southern
Khartoum
and Blue Nile.
We are
particularly
outraged that
now, many
months
into the
fighting,
there is no
humanitarian
access, that
some 300,000
or more people
have been
displaced, and
that they
don't have the
ability to
receive the
food and the
other support
that they
desperately
need.
We
have
urged the
government of
Sudan to open
up access, as
has the
United Nations
and its
humanitarian
entities, and
thus far
they've
refused. And I
hope very much
that the
United Nations
leadership who
are most
focused on
humanitarian
issues, as
well as the
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights and the
African Union,
will continue
their efforts
to prevail
upon the
government in
Khartoum to
open up
access and
stop allowing
their own
people to
suffer so
much.
, 
