Rice Says Abyei Mandate Is Now Clear, Sudan Denies Chad Is In Darfur
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 29, 2013 -- In Abyei after the Ngok Dinka paramount
chief was killed by the Misseriya, along with a UN peacekeeper from the
UNISFA mission, South Sudan Ambassador Francis Deng told
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/abyei4ladsous050913.html> Inner City Press
that the UN wasn't implementing its protection of civilians mandate
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/abyei4ladsous050913.html> .
Deng, a former UN official and also the brother of the paramount chief,
told Inner City Press that the UNISFA force commander told him that it was
his understanding the mandate concerned protecting civilians from the
Sudanese Army, not from non state actors like the Misseriya nomads.
Inner City Press repeatedly asked the UN about this, but has run into
difficulties because the head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous outright
refuses to answer its questions. (On May 29 he refused again, concerning the
135 rapes in Minova in November 2012 by 41st and 391st Battalions of the
Congolese Army, with which the UN continues to work; video here
<
http://youtu.be/tWl98yphx0g> ).
After the UN Security Council on Wednesday adopted a US-drafted resolution
extended the mandate of UNISFA, click here for the text of the resolution
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/sc1abyei052913.pdf> put online by Inner City
Press just after the vote, Inner City Press asked US Ambassador Susan Rice
about Deng's comments and the UN's mandate.
In a longer answer transcribed by the US Mission, Ambassador Rice said
that "We discussed in our consultations on the topic of UNIFSA a couple
weeks ago the question of whether there was any ambiguity in the mandate
about the nature and scope of the protection of civilians requirement. The
Secretariat affirmed that it is their understanding and, indeed, it is clear
to UNIFSA that indeed protection of civilians means protection of civilians
against a threat from wherever it may materialize."
The Secretariat means Ladsous' Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
While Ameerah Haq of the UN Department of Field Support gave a long,
suprisingly candid answer to Inner City Press' questions about the use of
"soft skin" vehicles by the UN Mission in South Sudan, including in an
incident in which five Indian peacekeepers were killed in Jonglei State, the
military mandate and rules of engagement question should be answered by
Herve Ladsous. But when?
After Ambassador Rice left the stakeout, and much of the press corps also
left to go hear Ladsous, Inner City Press stayed and asked Sudanese
Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman a question it also asked Rice: are
Chadian forces inside Sudan, chasing rebels from the Justice and Equality
Movement through Darfur into Southern Kordofan?
Sudan's Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman said no, Chad is a "friendly country"
but Sudan's army can take care of its business (as it perceives it). He
criticized "a few Council members" for blocking any statement on rebel
abuses in Abu Karshola. And he told Inner City Press that the US' blocking
of the Islamic African Relief Association in the UN's NGO Committee
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/unngo2hosi052813.html> was because of the
group's name. We'll see.
Received on Thu May 30 2013 - 10:35:48 EDT