In S. Sudan, UN Separated Dinka & Nuer, Now "Shocked" at Ban of Nuer
By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 2, 2014 -- While the UN purports to be "deeply
concerned" by South Sudan authorities' banning of Nuer national staff from
traveling this week, only earlier this year the UN itself segregated Nuer
from Dinka <
http://www.innercitypress.com/unsegregation1ssudan011314.html>
in its UN camps.
So how surprised can the UN be?
When UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on July 2, fresh from misleading /
incomplete answers about the UN flying sanctioned FDLR militia leaders
around in Eastern Congo
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/banspox1ladsousfdlr070214.html> , read out an
if-asked of deep concern, he did not say and his partner scribes did not ask
about the UN's own segregation - but rather about soccer, with censors.
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/funca1soccercensors070214.html> So it goes
at this UN.
Back on January 13 with the UN in South Sudan still separating those in its
camps into "Dinka" and "Nuer," Inner City Press on asked Dujarric's
predecessor Martin Nesirky what the UN's policy on making such separations,
particularly after Srebrenica, is. Video here
<
http://webtv.un.org/watch/daily-press-briefing-secretary-general-in-iraq-sy
ria-security-council-south-sudan-south-sudan-human-rights-south-sudan-food-m
ali-china-noon-briefing-guest-tomorrow-press-conferences-tomorrow/3049314625
001> , from Minute 12:20.
UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer had told some
hand-picked scribes that the segregation "initiative is on request of
community leaders. They've advised that this is the best way to keep things
calm and stable inside the base. If there is any policy here it's not ethnic
separation. It's to work with community leaders."
Nesirky first said that thousands have been saved by sheltering in ten UN
bases, and that the separation is ongoing. He said his colleagues in UN
Peacekeeping have answered.
But, Inner City Press asked, where would such deference to the requests of
"community leaders," such as could have been made even by the authorities in
Rwanda in early 1994, stop -- segregation by race or religion? Would this be
done in, say, the Central African Republic or Syria? By the UN?
Nesirky said that the situation inside the camps in South Sudan is
precarious because things are crowded, and "tensions could arise." All the
more reason to have a policy. So what is the UN's policy? Watch this site.
Received on Wed Jul 02 2014 - 17:32:00 EDT