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At UN, Darfur Forgotten, 2 Areas UNserved, Eliasson Explains, Rice Says On It

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 2 -- Amid UN self congratulation about the agreements between Sudan and South Sudan announced last week in Addis Ababa, almost nothing was heard during the General Debate about Darfur, where the UN has a $1 billion peacekeeping mission, UNAMID.

  In a Tuesday UN press conference, Inner City Press asked new Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson about this omission, and also whether any progress has been made on getting aid into the Two Areas, Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile.

  Earlier in front of the Security Council, Inner City Press asked US Permanent Representative Susan Rice about the Two Areas as well as Abyei.

   Ambassador Rice replied that as before, the African Union High level Implementation Panel and the UN's Haile Menkerios "will keep working" on Abyei; she added, seemingly referring to the Security Council, "we're going to stay on top of it, the Two Areas as well."

  Eliasson, who as Inner City Press noted previously served as UN envoy on Darfur, began by admitting that humanitarian aid has still not reached the Two Areas, despite previous statements. We're having a hard time "implementing" it, he said, citing continued fighting and danger:

"we thought we had it all ready, but it has now turned out to be great problems of implementation. There are evidently problems of fighting going on and unrest in that whole area."

  Cynically or not, Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Inner City Press that his country puts the blame on the UN for not showing up at the Tripartite meetings in Khartoum, and says he wrote a letter to this effect to the UN. We will continue on this.

  On Darfur to which he used to be the UN envoy, Eliasson admitted that the problems are not solved there but it is receiving less and less focus:

"As to Darfur, you are right – it’s not in the limelight. I don’t think it was mentioned in many of the speeches, if any. So it turns out, it seems that the issue is not in the highest attention of Member States, and some of the issues certainly are not solved. We may have a lower level of violence than when I was mediating or before that, but the outstanding issues are still there."

 Yes, Darfur is receiving less and less focus and one wonders: isn't that in part the UN's fault?

  For the General Debate week, doesn't the UN Secretariat choose some issues it is going to push? Member states were going to push Syria. Shouldn't the UN speak at least about the areas where it has peacekeeping mission?

  UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous openly refuses to answer any Press questions, because of coverage he hasn't liked. One might reply, do a better job. But what about the claimed support other UN officials and oratory in the General Debate for freedom of the press? Watch this site.

Here is the UN's transcript of DSG Eliasson:

Inner City Press: You mentioned the Sudan/South Sudan meeting. I wanted to know, one aspect of that is this thing of the two areas – South Kordofan and Blue Nile State. One, does the Secretariat have any idea when aid will actually reach those areas? And also another issue on Sudan is Darfur – I know that you were the Special Envoy in a previous incarnation on that issue. Did it come up in the meetings? Is it as central as it once was to the Secretary-General and to yourself, and how do you see that issue progressing or not progressing?

DSG: Aid to South Kordofan and Blue Nile has been up for a long time. I brought it up already in Addis Ababa with both sides, particularly, of course, the Government of Sudan. There was in principle an agreement with the African Union, League of Arab States and UN to open up access, and we thought we had it all ready, but it has now turned out to be great problems of implementation. There are evidently problems of fighting going on and unrest in that whole area. I met the High Commissioner for Refugees some time ago and he talked about the refugee flow into Ethiopia which was caused not so much by starvation, but actually by warfare, by bombings. So the situation in that area is in flux and possibly of a dangerous nature. But we have a humanitarian situation which has to be dealt with, where there are refugees also in South Sudan from that area. So we need to have access and we continue to push for this, and [Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator] Valerie Amos is giving this issue high priority.

As to Darfur, you are right – it’s not in the limelight. I don’t think it was mentioned in many of the speeches, if any. So it turns out, it seems that the issue is not in the highest attention of Member States, and some of the issues certainly are not solved. We may have a lower level of violence than when I was mediating or before that, but the outstanding issues are still there, but perhaps not of the same nature that catches attention like the South Sudan/Sudan situation and Blue Nile and Kordofan.

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