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As al-Bashir
is Feted in Doha, UN's Ban Affirms Position, Obama and Gration
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 29 -- As in Doha Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir basked in
Arab and African support, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon railed
stronger than usual against Bashir's expulsion of 10 non-governmental
organizations from Darfur. In New York, Ban's Spokesperson went out
of her way to point out that Ban never officially met Bashir in Doha,
but only looked across the conference hall at him.
One
explanation
of Ban's stance was found in yet another city, Washington, where on
Monday afternoon, US President Barrack Obama met with his new envoy
to Sudan, Scott Gration. Also attending the meeting were, among
others, Senator Isakson, Rep. Berman, Sen. Feingold, Rep. Payne and
Jerry Fowler of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Obama told the press he
wanted to affirm his support of Gration in advance of Gration's trip
to the region. Perhaps he wanted Ban Ki-moon, too, to affirm his
support for Gration and the US.
UN's Ban and Emir of Qatar in Doha, Sudan's
al-Bashir not shown
Of Gration, a
Sudanese diplomat told Inner City Press that Khartoum notes,
seemingly with optimism, that Gration has an anti-terrorism mandate:
this works for Sudan. He role in Iraq is viewed less positively. How
his humanitarian experience will play out is not known.
A
Chinese
diplomat, explaining his country's dissatisfaction with last week's
Security Council briefing by UN humanitarian John Holmes and joint
UN-African Union mediator Bassole, told Inner City Press that at
least two other officials should be there: UN Peacekeeping's Alain Le
Roy, and Luis Moreno Ocampo of the International
Criminal Court. All four pillars,
the Chinese
diplomat said, arguing that since the Council gave Ocampo his
mandate, he should come and explain himself...
Footnote:
speaking from Doha against the International Criminal Court's
indictment of Bashir, the African Union's
chief Jean Ping questioned by the ICC has not acted on five
situations: Iraq, Georgia, Gaza, Colombia... and Sri Lanka. To be
continued
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
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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