Sudan's
Deal,
& Bragging
to ICP, Echo
in UNSC But No
Output, P5
Split 4/1?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
12 -- After
Sudan and
South Sudan
reached a 17
page
“Implementation
Matix,” the UN
Security
Council did
not mark it
with a press
statement or
even the
lowest form of
Council
output,
press
elements.
Instead,
multiple
sources tell
Inner City
Press, focus
shifted to
things
Sudanese
Permanent
Representative
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman said
upon his
arrival, in a
bright white
suit, at the
Security
Council.
Daffa-Alla
Elhag
Ali Osman told
Inner City
Press, “Last
week, they
were
pushing hard
for a
Presidential
Statement to
condemn and
deplore
Sudan on
retarding and
impeding. Look
what happened.
The success
and
achievement
and
accomplishment
reached today,
this morning,
by
signing the
the
implementation
matrix of the
nine
agreements
proves
that there are
some people
here, few, who
are hasty... I
don't want
to be tough on
them. We need
patience. We
need
resilience. We
need
wisdom.”
Daffa-Alla
Elhag
Ali Osman went
in, then came
back out,
adding to
Inner City
Press,
“Imagine if
that was
adopted.”
Inside
the
Council, Inner
City Press is
told, these
quotes were
read out.
The article
had "Surreal"
in the
headline; the
theory was, every
Daffa has his
day.
As
recounted
later on the
record by
Ambassador
Susan Rice
then Russia's
Vitaly
Churkin,
Council
president for
March, Russia
proposed a
press
statement to
congratulate
Sudan and
South Sudan
for their
agreement.
The
US objected,
wanting to
include the
issues of
Abyei and of
Blue Nile
and Southern
Kordofan and
Sudan blocking
or delaying
negotiations
with the
SPLM-North.
Russia
shifted down
to press
elements, not
official in
any way, on
the
theory that
would give
more
flexibility,
Churkin told
Inner City
Press. But the
US still
objected.
According
to
Churkin, all
of the
Permanent Five
members of the
Council except
the US would
have agreed,
to the press
elements.
Notably,
when
France's
Gerard Araud
exited Inner
City Press
asked him
about
the prospects
for the draft
Presidential
Statement.
Araud said the
US
will circulate
a new drafts,
with “slight
amendments.”
But others
expect more
significant
amendments,
especially
with the press
elements
blocked.
Inner
City Press
asked
Ambassador
Rice about
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman's
comments, and
about whether
the African
Union
mediation team
might
not bear some
blame for
twice moving
the date of
the Southern
Kordofan and
Blue Nile
talks.
Ambassador
Rice
said she'd
leave it for
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman to speak
for
the government
of Sudan. She
said the
mediators had
set two dates
so
far in March,
but Khartoum
refused to
show up.
Daffa-Alla
Elhag
Ali Osman,
when he took
to the
microphone,
called it a
historical
day, saying it
is nearly
spring, it is
already the
Russian
Spring. That
DOES start on
March 1. But
the phrase has
another
resonance.
Inner
City Press
soon have
more, on the
Matrix and the
Matrix itself.
Watch
this site.
, 
