UN Sudan Sanctions Draft Slams Visa Denial, Darfur Killings, Bashir to
Libya?
By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, February 13, 2013 - When Sudan denied entry to UN sanctions
expert Schbley <
http://www.innercitypress.com/sudan3sanctions121312.html> ,
saying he was on a blacklist due to work on the UN's Somalia / Eritrea
sanctions panel, Colombia's Ambassador Nestor Osorio who then chaired the UN
Security Council's Sudan Sanctions Committee told Inner City Press it was an
"outrage" that would be reversed.
Now with Colombia off the Security Council and Argentina having come on and
taken over the chair for the Sudan Sanctions Committee, Schbley is still
blocked.
This week began closed door consultations on a draft resolution to extend
the experts' mandate. Inner City Press has exclusively obtained the draft
and is putting it online here
<
http://www.innercitypress.com/sudanxdrafticp020813.docx> . At Operative
Paragraph 11, the draft
"Calls on the Government of Sudan to remove all restrictions, limitations
and bureaucratic impediments imposed on the work of the Panel of Experts,
including by issuing timely multiple-entry visas to all members of the Panel
of Experts for the duration of its mandate, and by waiving the requirement
of Darfur travel permits for said Panel members."
Some on the Council see this as going too far, into the sovereignty of
Sudan. "Visas are a sovereign decision," a non-Western Council member told
Inner City Press on February 12. Another said, "The US throws drafts like
this down and expects us to just accept them."
A third Council member noted that the US has extended the time to
negotiate the draft. But where will it come out? The draft also has the
Security Council
"Further deploring the forcible detention and intimidation by the National
Intelligence and Security Services of members of the Panel of Experts,
condemning the simulated attack by Sudanese army helicopters on a UNAMID
patrol to which the Panel of Experts arms expert was attached; and deploring
the Government of Sudan's refusal to grant admittance to a member of the
Panel of Experts, as set out in paragraphs 20 to 24 of the Final Report of
the Panel of Experts."
Getting more specific, the draft cites Protection of Civilians, the topic
of the Security Council's all-day, late-night debate on February 12:
"Urges the Government of Sudan to respond to the Committee requests on
measures put in place to protect civilians in various parts of Darfur,
including those affected by new displacements; investigations conducted and
accountability measures undertaken for killings of civilians and
perpetrators of human rights abuses and violations of international
humanitarian law (including notably the killings of civilians in Abu Zereiga
in June 2011, Hashaba in August 2012 and Sigili in November 2012)"
Meanwhile some report that already indicted President Omar al Bashir plans
to travel not only to Chad but also Libya. Watch this site.
Received on Wed Feb 13 2013 - 15:47:39 EST
