On
Sudans, Deng
Makes Abyei
Claim, Ladsous
Stonewalls on
Kadugli
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 16 --
With the issue
of Abyei
outstanding at
least
until the
African Union
Peace and
Security
Council meets
with Thabo
Mbeki on
October 22,
the UN
Security
Council was
briefed
Tuesday
afternoon not
by envoy Haile
Menkerios, but
only the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations'
Herve Ladsous.
The
Sudan - South
Sudan issues
are political,
not in
Ladsous' shop.
South
Sudan's new
Permanent
Representative
Francis Deng,
until recently
the
UN's Special
Adviser on the
Prevention of
Genocide,
waited outside
the Council's
closed door
consultations
and then came
to take Press
questions.
Inner
City Press
asked Deng
about reports
that Abyei
might be
partitioned,
rather than
have a
referendum in
which the
sides cannot
agree if the
Miseriya can
vote.
Deng, who is
also an
author,
hearkened back
to
Abyei
agreements of
1972 and even
1905, calling
it absurd that
the
Miseriya would
vote.
On
the topic of
the oil
facilities at
Heglig, Inner
City Press
asked
Deng if it is
true that the
sides are
negotiating
for some form
of
compensation.
Deng did not
directly
answer, noting
that the Dinka
have another
name for the
area.
Sudan's
Permanent
Representative
Daffa-Alla
Elhag Ali
Osman had been
by the
stakeout
earlier, and
Inner City
Press asked
him if it is
true that
Thabo Mbeki
will visit
both Khartoum
and Juba
before the AU
PSC
meeting on
August 22. He
denied it,
saying that
there is no
concrete
information
about any such
visit "yet."
US
Ambassador
Susan Rice,
outside the
meeting,
congratulated
Ambassador
Deng on South
Sudan's
ratification
of the Addis
Ababa
agreements
with
Sudan -- there
were, we note,
some protests,
about Mile 14
and other
issues -- and
invited Deng
to come to the
US Mission.
Inner
City Press
asked
Ambassador
Rice whether
the DPKO
Peacekeepers
in
Kadugli in
Southern
Kordofan could
or should do
anything if
they
witnessed
killings there
on their way
to the UNISFA
mission in
Abyei.
Rice
considered the
questions and
called it
"difficult...
in a
contested
area."
Later
Inner City
Press put the
question,
short and
simple, to
DPKO chief
Herve Ladsous
as he left the
meeting, in
the same way
Ladsous'
predecessors
Alain Le Roy
and Jean-Marie
Guehenno
always
answered
questions:
what can the
DPKO base at
Kadugli do in
these
circumstances?
Ladsous
refused
to provide any
answer at all,
just as he
pretended in
September that
an Inner City
Press question
about the UN's
role in
Abyei had not
even been
asked -- video
here --
and then
had his DPKO
try to get the
audio record
of the
question
stricken from
UN
Television's
web cast.
This in Ban
Ki-moon's
UN.
Draw
your own
conclusions.
Finally
this
month's
Security
Council
president Gert
Rosenthal of
Guatemala
emerged and
provided a
summary. Inner
City Press
asked about
the
Kadugli issue
-- Rosenthal
proffered an
answer, but of
course it is
not him in
daily charge
of DPKO, and
paid for it,
that is
Ladsous --
and a question
about Syria.
And then he
left.
The next UN
Security
Council news
on Sudan, one
supposes, will
be after Mbeki
goes to the
AU PSC,
whether
through
Khartoum or
not. Watch
this site.
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