As
Sudan
Reiterates
Block on UN
Expert
Schbley, US
Reaction,
Moroccan
Demarche
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 7 --
The day after
Sudan
defended its
exclusion
of
the new Expert
on Sudan
Sanctions
appointed last
month by UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon,
Ghassan
Schbley of the
United States,
on Friday the
US Mission to
the UN
responded.
The US
Mission's
Deputy
Spokesperson
Payton L.
Knopf told
Inner City
Press,
"unfettered
access for
Panels of
Experts is a
fundamental
principle. It
is
unacceptable
that Sudan or
any country
would prevent
a member of a
Panel of
Experts from
conducting his
or
her work as
mandated by
the Security
Council."
After
Inner City
Press first
reported on
the blocking
and
"interrogation"
of Schbley by
Sudan, it
emerged from
closed door
Security
Council
consultations
that this
month's
Council
president,
Morocco's
Permanent
Representative
Loulichki, has
been directed
to "demarche"
Sudan's
Permanent
Representative
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman on the
topic.
But
does that mean
Loulichki will
order Sudan to
let Schbley
in? And if
so, would
Sudan do so?
Inner
City Press
asked
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman, who
expanded on
his
Mission's
letter which
Inner City
Press published
yesterday.
He said
that Schbley
has been on a
Sudanese
"blacklist for
six years,"
based on
activities
"against the
interest of
Sudan."
But
why then did
Sudan give
Schbley a
visa, before
not letting
him in? This
has yet to be
answered, and
at least one
major
non-Permanent
member
of the Council
tells Inner
City Press
this is the
key question.
Others
want
to know which
incoming
Security
Council member
will replace
Nestor Osorio
of Colombia as
chair of the
Sudan
Sanctions
Committee.
Pro-Khartoum
sources snark
to Inner City
Press that
Colombia was
given the
chair on Sudan
and Iran
sanctions
because it is
a supporter of
US foreign
policy, on
these and more
generally.
These sources
predict,
admittedly
without
definitive
knowledge,
that the chair
will go to
like-minded
South
Korea.
But
what of
Schbley and
Loulichki's
"demarche" of
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman? Watch
this site.
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