By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 14 -- After the UN begrudgingly confirmed to Inner City Press that it had provided transportation to Ahmed Haroun, indicted for war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court, the office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky insisted that it was “on a space available basis... at no additional operational costs to the mission.”
Immediately after that answer, two weeks ago, Inner City Press began asking Nesirky:
“On your answer that Ahmed Haroun, indicted by the ICC for war crimes in Darfur, flew on a pre-existing UN flight, in light of footage from interview in South Kordofan which Haroun arranged with UN plane on camera behind him, please state who else was on the flight with him, how frequent UN flights between Abyei and South Kordofan are and what size aircrafts are used.”
While there has still not been answer answer to this question, on February 11 in front of the UN Security Council Inner City Press asked the head of the UN Mission in Sudan Haile Menkerios if Haroun had been flown on a regular UN flight.
Menkerios said no, “there is no direct flight to Abyei. We flew him there in order to take him... We flew him by helicopter to Abyei because there is no flight.”
This contradicted Ban's spokesman's response that the UN's flight of ICC indictee Haroun was “on a space available basis... at no additional operational costs to the mission.”
And so on February 14 Inner City Press asked Nesirky to explain the discrepancy, and reiterated the request to know who else was on the flight, and how much it cost.
Nesirky began by asking Inner City Press to “read from [its] blog” and then denied there was any contradiction:
Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about this, the flying by UNMIS of Ahmed Haroun, who is indicted by the ICC. And earlier response from your office had said that…
Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Matthew, why don’t you read out what your blog said today?
Inner City Press: Yeah, Okay.
Spokesperson: Why don’t you read out…?
Inner City Press: No, what I would like to know, I’d like to know what your response is.
Spokesperson: Why don’t you read out what the top of your blog said today? Do you want to read out the top, what your blog actually says?
Inner City Press: I’d like… okay, fine, I mean… I guess that… I was trying to ask you a question. I thought that was the purpose of these briefings.
Spokesperson: No, I mean, just ask the question, but…
Inner City Press: Yeah, my question is, how is it consistent with the response that I got that said that there were these pre-existing seats and were done at no additional cost to the Mission with Mr. [Haile] Menkerios’ statement that there was a special helicopter used because there are no regular flights to Abyei. How are the two consistent? And what was the cost to Abyei? And…
Spokesperson: Well, I think there is a very clear answer to this. And that is that, at the request of the Government and when space is available, UNMIS provides seats on its flights to Government officials on official business related to the peace process, and without any financial implications to the Government and at no additional operational costs to the Mission. This means that, as part of the Mission's mandate, the cost of transporting Government officials, whether it is on a regular or a special flight, is already allocated in the Mission's budget and so there is no question of it incurring any additional operational costs.
UN's Ban & spox Nesirky, cost of flying ICC indictee not shown
And in this case — and as mentioned indeed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Menkerios — a regular flight was not available and therefore UNMIS transported Governor Haroun as part of its mandate to provide good offices to the parties, under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, in their efforts to resolve their differences through dialogue and negotiations.
And as I think you will recall, at the time there were clashes in Abyei going on at the time, and those clashes threatened to escalate. And it was Governor Haroun who was instrumental in bringing the Misseriya leaders to that meeting in Abyei, and this helped to prevent further clashes.
Inner City Press: But you understand why the answer that said on a space-available basis and at no additional operational cost to the Mission created the impression that this was a pre-existing flight, as from, for example, Kinshasa to Goma, on which he put somebody on an existing flight? I mean, that’s why I have been asking who else was on the flight and how much did the flight cost. It seems a fair question when transporting an indicted ICC indicted of war crimes.
Spokesperson: I think, as we’ve said very clearly, no additional operational costs are involved. Within the budget there are costs that cover transport, and there is no additional cost involved in the flight that was provided.
Inner City Press: The idea of like a special UN flight to fly Mr. Haroun to Abyei being at no additional costs to the Mission. I just, I guess I wanted…
Spokesperson: Because there are blocks of time available for flights, and that is already budgeted into the Mission’s budget, and indeed that is a standard procedure in any mission which has an aircraft.
Inner City Press: Would the UN fly Omar al-Bashir to Darfur? I mean, I guess I just want to know where it stops. I guess I just want to reiterate my question, despite the simplest way to do it, how much the flight actually cost - because there is, I am sure, a cost to it – and who else was on the flight? I mean, it seemed like a pretty fair… because there is controversy around this flight and I just find that the answer that was given, at least I know, maybe I am… maybe I am a bad reader, but it’s… when it says when seats are available and at no additional cost it implies that the flight was a pre-existing flight on which, at no cost to the Mission, they put Mr. Haroun on the flight. But it’s not the case.
Spokesperson: Well, it is as I said to you, when space is available and at the request of the Government, the Mission provides seats on its flights. And it doesn’t, there are no financial implications for the Government, and no additional operational costs to the mission.
Inner City Press: [inaudible] when you said like when seats are available, usually this implies…
Spokesperson: Let’s move on, we’re moving round in circles, Matthew. Let’s move on to the next question. I am sure you have another question.
Yes there are many more questions. Watch this site.
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