Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

On Sudans, US Drafted Statement Called Bland, No Susan, No Stakeout

UNITED NATIONS, April 11 -- The Sudan / South Sudan meetings of the UN Security Council have become routine, with little outside transparency and at least for now, no outputs.

Thursday the Council met for nearly three hours. The news, such as it was, involved the United States putting forth a new draft press statement.

Some sources have called it “balanced” or even “bland.” That would be compared the US proposed Presidential Statement, then the Russian proposed press statement to praise Sudan's and South Sudan's Implementation Matrix.

But no one came to speak on-camera after the three hour meeting. The Ambassador of Sudan Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, after glad-handing the new Ethiopian force commander of the UNISFA mission in Abyei, told Inner City Press, if other spoke, he would. A phrase was coined: no Susan, no stakeout.

In the past, South Sudan has arrived to speak at the stakeout. But not this time. Yesterday's question about South Sudan voting for a moratorium on the death penalty while still in 2012 executing at least five is still resonating. And the Security Council expert will now be taking up the US drafted press statement. Watch this site.