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At UN, Zimbabwe Briefing Sparks Controversy, Darfur
Trucks May Get UN Protection, Holmes Says
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
June 13 -- As in Zimbabwe
opposition leaders are arrested and food distribution by
non-governmental
organizations is prohibited in the run-up to the contested election's
second
round, the UN Security Council on Thursday received a closed-door
briefing from
Humanitarian Coordinators John Holmes. Afterwards Holmes told the Press
that
the crack down on NGOs is unfortunate, especially if it continues past
the
elections. That the briefing was even held was matter of Council
controversy.
According to a Western diplomat just after the meeting, inside South
Africa's
Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo had said the briefing should be held, on the
theory
that events in Zimbabwe are not a threat to international peace and
security.
The UN Secretariat is trying to please both audiences, sending an
envoy, Haile
Menkerios, who is Eritrean by birth but who has since, it is reported,
gotten a
South African passport. When the UN Spokesperson was asked on Thursday,
she said "I think he’s South African," transcript here.
If the UN amends this, so will we.
Menkerios, it
appears, will briefing the Council after
his visit. Holmes was asked, but won't
that be too late? Holmes had to leave for a meeting upstairs.
Haile Menkerios and Ban Ki-moon, protection
of WFP trucks in Darfur not shown
Inner City
Press asked Holmes why the UN is not protecting at least some of the
World Food
Program trucks heading to Darfur from El Obeid. During the Security
Council's
trip to El Fasher, the Press was told by WFP that it is cutting rations
in
North Darfur in half because of the number of trucks being hijacked on
the road
from El Obeid. Meanwhile, Inner City Press spoke with a number of blue
helmeted
peacekeepers inside the Lockheed Martin-maintained UNAMID camp in El
Fasher who
expressed frustration at rarely leaving the base. A Gambian contingent
in
particular, in crisp uniforms in the mid-afternoon clutching
rocket-propelled
grenade launchers, asked why they aren't sent out to "do some good,"
before they return to Jammeh's Gambia.
Holmes said
that while protecting the convoys is the primary responsibility of the
Sudanese
government, there is some discussion of the UN providing protection,
but UNAMID
is still under-deployed. Fine. But why
not start somewhere?
Inner City
Press asked for the record if the Sudanese government has indicated
that it
would not agree to UN protection for the food trucks. No, they have not
said
that, Holmes said. All right, then. When will at least some protection
begin? We
will continue to follow this.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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