Sudan: Radio Dabanga - the Voice of Truth Amidst a Sea of UN Mendacity

15 December 2013

On Friday evening, December 13, 2013, Radio Dabanga celebrated its fifth anniversary of reporting on Darfur from The Netherlands. It was, inevitably, a somber event--and not simply because of the grim, often unspeakably cruel news that Radio Dabanga daily reports from all corners of Darfur. On this occasion, Aicha Elbasri, former spokesperson for the UN/African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) made clear her intense dismay at the lies that UNAMID tells about itself, lies that are replicated within the UN system: the Secretariat, the humanitarian agencies, and most consequentially, the UN Security Council. And yet while well aware of realities in Darfur, and the terrible inadequacy of UNAMID in fulfilling its mandate to protect civilians and humanitarians, the Security Council does nothing. The deeply distorted reports from Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on UNAMID and Darfur are also reflections of a fundamental dishonesty in what UNAMID says--and does not say--publicly about the terrifyingly chaotic insecurity that has engulfed the region over the past several years. Ms. Elbasri has promised a full disclosure of what she has seen and what she knows if the UN does not in short order openly respond to charges she has formally submitted.

As someone who has written critically of UNAMID, and UNAMID (non)reporting, for a number of years, I find vindication but no comfort in the fact that the very harshest of my accusations have already been implicitly confirmed by a senior UN official who was on the ground, if relatively briefly, and that a much fuller confirmation will come from the UN or Ms. Elbasri herself (she resigned because she was not given adequate or accurate information by UNAMID). A list of my own publications speaking to the dishonesty and incompetence of UNAMID, over several years, is included in Appendix 1.

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