On
S. Sudan, UN
Johnson Tells
ICP Expulsion
of Rights
Official
Final, Copter
Haze
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 11 --
Back in
November 2012
South Sudan
expelled a UN
human rights
officer. The
UN spoke up,
briefly, but
has said
little
since.
When the UN's
envoy to Juba
Hilde Johnson
spoke Monday
across
the street
from the UN,
Inner City
Press went to
ask about this
and
about the four
Russian pilots
killed when
South Sudan
shot down a UN
helicopter in
December. Video here.
Russia
has
the presidency
of the
Security
Council this
month, and on
March 4
Inner City
Press asked
its Permanent
Representative
Vitaly Churkin
about the
copter.
He said he
would meet
with Johnson
on March 6,
and
would hope for
answers before
the South
Sudan session
of the Council
later in the
month.
After
a slide
presentation
by Johnson to
a packed house
at the
International
Peace
Institute,
Inner City
Press asked
Johnson the
two
questions,
about the
Persona Non
Grata (PNG)
rights officer
and the
helicopter and
its black box.
On
the
helicopter,
Johnson said
among other
things the
Russians were
happy, at
least with
regard to the
black box --
that is NOT
Inner
City Press'
understanding
-- and that
the UN's own
board of
inquiry
should be
finished by
mid March,
that is,
before the
Council
session.
South
Sudan's
investigation,
she said, can
extended to
May 10.
Johnson
said
the human
rights officer
hadn't been
“PNG-ed,” but
rather
told to leave
the country.
She said while
it was raised,
the decision
will not be
reversed. So
does the UN
does accept
it? Notably,
the UN
is continuing
to try to push
into Sudan to
the north
their
sanctions
"expert"
Ghassan
Schbley.
What's the
difference?
Footnote:
also
at the IPI
session and on the video was a question by
Agence
France
Presse's Tim
Witcher. Inner
City Press
had been
informed just
before
Johnson's
presentation
by UN
Security
that Witcher
and Reuters
had filed a
frivolous
complaint
concerning a
verbal
disagreement
on March 8
about AFP
acting, once
again, as
a
pass-through
for UN
Peacekeeping's
Herve Ladsous,
this time on 126
rapes in
Minova by the
Congolese
Army, DPKO's
partner.
Witcher's
question
was about the
UNMISS mission
not directly
supporting the
SPLA against
the Yau Yau
rebels. (Some
have
concluded,
Witcher and so
AFP support
anything
Ladsous wants
to do, and so
wonder if this
question meant
Ladsous who
favors drones
and
intervention
brigades
with other
people's
soldiers would
like UNMISS to
directly take
one
David Yau
Yau.)
Johnson spoke
of tagging
along to
protect
civilians,
while fighting
of which the
UN has
foreknowledge
begins. Is
this the
UN? Watch this
site.
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