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On Darfur, Playing Chicken with UNAMID,
Burkina-Faso's Selective Solidarity with AU
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
July 29 -- About Darfur, the
Security Council's backroom politics continue to heat up. Tuesday
morning South
African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo chided reporters who had described
his
country and Libya as supporting Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir. Yes,
Ambassador Kumalo said, that duo and Burkina-Faso favor a 12-month
suspension
of International Criminal Court indictment proceedings. But that is
just to
"give peace a chance."
He
said that the prosecutor's work could go
forward, even if the 12-month suspension is in place. Inner City Press
asked if
his proposed language would have any effect on the outstanding warrants
against
Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb. "I'm not a lawyer," Kumalo
answered. "But I have a good one
inside" the Security Council chamber. Video here.
Moments
later, Burkina-Faso's Ambassador Kafando came out to speak about the
pro-forma
extension of the UN's Ivory Coast mission. With France's Deputy
Permanent
Representative Jean-Pierre Lacroix at his side, he took a question
about
Burkina-Faso's position on Darfur and the 12-month suspension. "We are
in
complete solidarity with the African Union position," he answered. As
Inner City Press has reported, Burkina-Faso broke with the African
Union on the
question
of Zimbabwe.
So it's a
selective solidarity, apparently. Just as
France's partnership with Burkina-Faso, in place with regard to Ivory
Coast,
does not extend to Sudan. No permanent friends, indeed.
News
analysis: What explains Burkina-Faso's pro-AU position on
Darfur, after it broke with the AU on Zimbabwe? Inner City Press posits
that the AU's agreement to the appointment of Burkina-Faso's foreign
minister as the AU-UN mediator for Darfur might explain it, just as
certain funding commitments to Burkina-Faso at the time of the Zimbabwe
vote have been linked. To be a small country is not easy, but the
position can be used. And
Inner City Press is told that Burkina-Faso's foreign minister has
expressed support for suspending the ICC proceedings against Al-Bashir
-- but only in private, since he is the mediator.
Earlier this year, Amb. Kafando with
France's Ripert, who's away on vacation, UNAMID in play
The
12-month ICC suspension issue is holding up the extension of the hybrid
UN-AU
peacekeeping mission in Darfur, UNAMID, the UN mandate for which
expired on
July 31. This "hydridity" is being used by Western diplomats to argue
against a compromise proposal, to rollover the UN's mandate for UNAMID
for two
months, putting the suspension of indictment issue off for sixty days. They point out that the African Union has
extended its part of the mandate for 12 months, so a two month UN
response
would be "confusing" and would "send a strange message to the AU."
But it is the AU asking for the Security Council to include in its
extension
the 12-month ICC suspension issue, called "Article 16" for the
provision of the ICC's Rome Statute which allows for 12 month
suspensions.
Western
diplomats also argue that a two month rollover would further hamper
UNAMID,
that the Department of Field Support, which nine months ago handed $250
million
on a no-bid basis to Lockheed Martin to build peacekeeping camps in
Darfur,
would be hamstrung by a two month time frame. Other argue that it might
make
waste more likely. Lockheed Martin's tab for two months would have been
less
that for six or nine months, it is noted.
Also on UNAMID, at
the July
28 UN noon briefing,
Inner City Press asked
Inner City Press: Michele, there
is this report put out by the Darfur consortium. It’s
calling UNAMID perhaps the world’s most
broken promise, and citing, criticizing the United Nations in some
sense, for
the different interpretations of the mandate.
I know that Mr. Agwai has spoken and said they don’t
have the resources,
but I guess since the Secretary-General has made Darfur such a major
thing on
his agenda, what’s his response to this report?
Spokesperson Montas: Well, he
has been calling for the same things
that those associations are also asking for.
He has said that he was deeply disappointed in his
last report over the
lack of progress. He used the term
"deeply disappointed" towards the lack of progress made towards
resolving the conflict. And he said the
parties continue to pursue the path of military confrontation instead
of
dialogue. "The deployment of UNAMID
is far behind schedule," he said.
"Sexual and gender-based violence continues with
impunity; and
heightened insecurity and banditry have severely hampered our ability
to
provide life-sustaining humanitarian assistance to nearly 2.5 million
civilians
in need." I am quoting here what he
said.
Inner City Press: Sure. But, I
mean, I guess -- and I am sorry to ask
this -- but in light of both the report and the situation, what are the
plans? What plans are afoot to somehow,
at least in terms of protecting civilians, to address the issues raised
in the
report? I mean, I understand he is
disappointed and I know that it is not easy, but is there anything; I
mean,
does he have anything new to say?
Spokesperson: Well, as you know,
the Mission is slowly
getting more soldiers in. I’ll give you
numbers as we go on about the number of people who have been coming in. I told you about the Egyptian group of
engineers that came in. It’s a very slow
process, unfortunately, and that’s one of the things that the
Secretary-General
is concerned about.
Watch this site.
And
this --
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