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UN in Sudan is Lost in
Translation and Typos, ICC Confusion and Muted Coup Response on
Mauritania
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS, August 18, updated
-- As
Ban Ki-moon's envoy to South Sudan, Ashraf Qazi, fell under fire for
comments
on the system of justice in Khartoum, criticism of Ban from Sudan's
Ministry of
Foreign Affairs was blamed on unspecified translation errors. On August
15,
Inner City Press asked Ban's Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq,
according to
the UN's
transcript
Inner
City Press: the Sudanese Foreign
Ministry has criticized Mr. Ban for comments that he apparently made in
an
interview with Al Ahram, in which he
said that the International Criminal Court can enforce its decisions. He said a variety of things.
The Foreign Ministry of Sudan has said that
Mr. Ban should not pre-empt results of the ICC, and he should not
really speak
about it, since it is not a UN organ.
What is the response by Mr. Ban?
What did he say?
Associate
Spokesperson Haq: As far as that goes, I
believe what is in question was a mistranslation. The
comments that the Secretary-General made
were in English, and in English he made it clear that issues pertaining
to the
Court are for the Court to consider. It
is not that he was calling for any particular steps to be taken
regarding the
International Criminal Court. He made it
very clear in that interview that the International Criminal Court is
an
independent body.
Inner
City Press: If you guys have a
transcript of it in English, can we get that transcript of what Mr. Ban
said?
Associate
Spokesperson Haq: I'll check.
We certainly had a transcript that we sent to
Al Ahram. I'd have to be able to get a
hold of the final transcript that was sent to them.
As you know, my boss, Michele, is away, so I
am not entirely sure whether I have the last version.
Following this exchange, Inner City Press was
told by the reporter who conducted the interview with Ban Ki-moon,
fluent in
both English and Arabic, that there was no mis-translation, and that he
would
ask Ban's Spokesperson's office to issue a clarification to that effect
on
Monday. On this basis, Inner City Press held off writing on the topic.
But at Monday's noon briefing, no clarification was
issued. Why raise
any additional fuss, was apparently the response. But why write-off a
policy
disagreement with a member state on a major matter to
mistranslation? Last week and on Monday, reporters at the UN were
asking for an on the record press availability by Ban Ki-moon. We'll
see.
Ban Ki-moon, mistranslated, and Ashraf Qazi, misunderstood on mandate
There was also the matter of what Mr. Qazi called
typographical errors. In his briefing to
the Security Council on
August 18, Qazi defended that that his Mission did not "protect
civilian
property" in Abyei in May, and said "In this record, I commend the
report titled 'Security Council Action Under Chapter VII: Myths and
reality" and released by the Council on 23 June 2008."
Since this hardly sounds like the title of a UN
Security Council report,
Inner City Press asked several diplomats and then Mr. Qazi himself. The
diplomats said they'd never heard of the report. Qazi told Inner City
Press, as
he left the Council, that it was a typographical error. The report was
actually
issued by a think tank, he said, the Security Council Report. It makes
a
difference.
Following Monday's Council session, Inner City Press
asked August's Belgian
president Jan Grauls if the Council will, in fact, debate the issue of
UNMIS'
rules of engagement, and if a second investigation of UNMIS' non-action
in May
in Abyei is now underway. The debate will take place at some point,
Amb. Grauls
answered, declining to comment on the second investigation. And then he
drifted
away. Video here,
at end.
To nail down other contested facts,
a report from late last week that Sudan would seek a
General Assembly resolution in September concerning the International
Criminal
Court proceedings against President Omar Al Bashir, was categorically
denied to
Inner City Press by the Sudanese Mission to the UN. And the spokesman
for the
President of the General Assembly on Monday told Inner City Press he
had heard
nothing about such a resolution. Regarding
another item, Serbia's confirmed desire for a General Assembly
supplemental item to refer the legality of Kososo's unilateral
declaration of independence to the International Court of Justice, he
said that had to be filed 30 days
before the General Assembly meeting formally starts, this year on
September 16. Whether any request by
Sudan -- which the Sudanese mission to the UN in any event denies
-- would be subject to the same August 16 deadline is not yet clear.
Footnote:
Alongside Qazi's
report, the Council on Monday considered the coup in Mauritania, which
would be
condemned by a Presidential Statement (PRST) drafted by the United
States. But
non-permanant member Panama raised a point of "working methods," that
no briefing had been provided before a vote was asked for on the PRST.
Hastily,
a briefing was arranged, by Haile Menkerios, who is the UN's envoy to
Zimbabwe,
not Mauritania. That envoy, Said Djinnit, has not been heard from. The
Mauritiania PRST was not voted on during Monday's Council session; the
French
were said to still be working on a resolution about Georgia.
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia), and
this --
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