At UN, South Sudan Says Won't Leave Heglig Until Monitors, SC All Syria - Inner City Press

At UN, South Sudan Says Won't Leave Heglig Until Monitors, SC All Syria

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 12 -- South Sudan will only leave Heglig in Sudan "once a mechanism is in place and a neutral force is deployed in the area," South Sudanese Deputy Permanent Representative Agnes Oswaha told Inner City Press on Thursday. Video here, from Minute 14:27.

  The UN Security Council, two hours earlier, had adopted a Presidential Statement calling on South Sudan to withdraw from Heglig. After Agnes Oswaha's answers, a Western Council diplomat told Inner City Press that "grabbing Heglig is not the right way to improve South Sudan's negotiating position."

  But Agnes Oswaha's told Inner City Press that "Heglig is a disputed area... Sudan has been benefiting from Heglig resources."

  Heglig is Sudan's major remaining oil field. If it does not produce, at least for Khartoum, for an extended period of time, the consequences will be substantial. Earlier on Thursday Sudan's Permanent Representative Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman vowed to Inner City Press that if South Sudan does not withdraw they will be "thrown out," and fast.

  But even after South Sudan's statement, the Security Council remained focused on Syria -- even as a coup d'etat was reported in Guinea-Bissau. A non-Western diplomat leaving the Council told Inner City Press, "Now you see this is useless," pointing back at the Security Council. Another, told of the Guinea Bissau coup, quipped "congratulations!" Still another said, "We need another Security Council."

One Council member with an eye on Bissau, Togo, appeared at the Council at 6:15 pm. But they left at 6:20, telling Inner City Press, "We have to know more." Some call it coup fatigue.

Meanwhile on the Syria draft resolution, even after hours, negotiations remained on the initial Operative Paragraphs, with a fight predicted over "freedom of movement." This comes just after the re-release of Ban Ki-moon's report on Western Sahara, where the UN mission clearly does not have freedom of movement. A European diplomat pointed out that more people are being killed in Syria. So that's the standard? Watch this site.