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Pillay Report on S. Kordofan Edited Out Critique of UN & Sudan Red Crescent, Shifted IDPs Out of Protective Perimeter

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 19 -- As the UN Security Council takes up the Southern Kordofan report of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, the portions most critical, including of the UN itself, were removed from Pillay's "final" report.

  Inner City Press, which put the initial draft of the report online, has since August 15 been asking why a reference to UN peacekeepers of the Egyptian battalion being present as an SPLM-North member was killed was deleted in Pillay's final report.

  "The published report was shortened and was brought in line qualitatively with UN standards," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's acting deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told Inner City Press on August 15. On August 18 outside the Security Council, Pillay took only two questions, none of Southern Kordofan.

  A closer reading of the draft and final reports shows systematic underplaying of abuses by Sudan, and letting UN peacekeepers off the hook.

 Beyond the airbrushing out of UN peacekeepers between Paragraph 29 of the draft report and Paragraph 19 of the final versions, the draft described inaction as Sudan's police and militia violated the UN's "Protective" Perimeter:

"42. On 8 June, UNMIS Human Rights witnessed the movement of four armed men (two armed civilians and two Central Reserve Police) carrying weapons in and out of the UNMIS Protective Perimeter without any intervention from the UNMIS peacekeepers guarding the premises."

  The final version changes the location to "outside the UNMIS protective perimeter" --

"30. On 8 June, UNMIS Human Rights witnessed the movement of four armed men (two armed men in civilian clothes and two Central Reserve Police) carrying weapons in and out of the IDP area situated outside the UNMIS protective perimeter."

Whole incidents, for example with the Sudanese Red Crescent, were omitted from Pillay's final report. The draft reported

"53. As of the morning of 20 June, there were about 11,000 IDPs in and around the vicinity of the UNMIS Protective Perimeter, most of whom had come from Kadugli and its immediate environs. In an attempt to force these IDPs to return back to their homes, it is believed that National Security agents, donning Sudan Red Crescent vests, came to the UNMIS Protective Perimeter and requested all the IDPs to relocate to the Kadugli Stadium by 17:00 that same day where they would be addressed by state authorities on the security situation and where they would be provided basic services including shelter in schools. Human Rights verified this allegation through multiple interviews of IDPs within the UNMIS Protective Perimeter.

54. UNMIS Human Rights also observed a well known National Security agent wearing a Sudan Red Crescent reflective vest intimidating IDPs. When approached and questioned by UNMIS Human Rights the agent identified himself as a NSS agent and said he had received instructions from state-level authorities to move out IDPs from the UNMIS Protective Perimeter. IDPs interviewed said that they were informed by Sudan Red Crescent personnel that they must evacuate the Protective Perimeter by 16:00 and that they feared the Central Reserve Police would evacuate them forcibly if they did not leave the premises."

  This incident is entirely omitted from the final report, in which the Sudanese Red Crescent is mentioned only once, as a source of data for Pillay.

  These edits and omissions are significant: but will Pillay answer the Press, or will Security Council members even ask her?

 As noted, when US Ambassador Susan Rice appeared the same day the report came out on the Steven Colbert comedy show, she said "the blue helmet guys are protecting the people who are the victims of conflict and protecting those that are delivering the assistance in many parts of the world. So they’re good guys..."

  While this is surely true in some situations, Inner City Press is informed that even the UN's Haile Menkerios, who approved the use of UN helicopter to fly Southern Kordofan government Ahmed Haroun, indicted by the International Criminal Court, to Abyei said while in Juba in July he would never again accept or use Egyptian peacekeepers.

The Anglican Bishop of Kadugli told Inner City Press that the Egyptian troops used by the UN there were too close to Khartoum, and sided with the government.

    For example which Inner City Press raised August 15 to the UN, the initial report stated  that

"29. On 8 June, an UNMIS independent contractor (IC) was pulled out of a vehicle by SAF in front of the UNMIS Kadugli Sector IV Compound in the presence of several witnesses, while UN peacekeepers could not intervene. He was taken around the corner of the compound and gunshots were heard. Later he was discovered dead by UNMIS personnel and IDPs. Several sources confirmed that the victim was an active SPLM member." (Emphasis added.)

  When the edited version was released, this paragraph appeared with the key phrase "while UN peacekeepers could not intervene" entirely removed, as if the Egyptian UN peacekeepers had not been there:

"17. On 8 June, an UNMIS individual contractor (IC) was pulled out of a vehicle by SAF in front of the UNMIS Kadugli Sector IV compound in the presence of several witnesses. He was taken away from the vicinity of the compound and gunshots were heard. Later he was discovered dead by UNMIS personnel and IDPs. Several sources confirmed that the victim was an active SPLM member."

  How can Pillay justify airbrushing out the presence of inactive UN peacekeepers? 

  On August 15 at the UN noon briefing Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's acting deputy spokesman Farhan Haq, click here for that exchange. and watch this site.