Obama Sending 5 US Military Officers to South Sudan
By JULIE PACE | Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is sending five American military officers to South Sudan amid recent outbreaks of violence in the newly independent African nation.
The White House said the U.S. forces will join the United Nations mission in the capital of Juba and focus on strategic planning and operations. They are not expected to engage in combat operations, but will be armed for personal protection.
Obama issued a memorandum Tuesday declaring that the U.S. officers could not be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court during their deployment because South Sudan is not a party to the ICC. The White House said prior administrations used similar designations when sending U.S. forces to United Nations missions in Haiti and Liberia.
The first of the small group of U.S. forces is expected to depart for South Sudan later this week. The Pentagon said there were no plans to expand the U.S. contribution to the U.N. mission.
Since gaining independence in July, South Sudan has been beset by internal conflict. Aid groups estimate that 60,000 people have been affected by recent outbreaks of violence, and the U.N. says tens of thousands have fled their homes and are in urgent need of high-nutritional food, clean water, health care and shelter.
Violence also has simmered on the new border with Sudan. The two countries have not yet agreed to terms to share the region’s oil wealth.
In response to the violence, Obama issued a separate memorandum last week giving the U.S. the ability to send weapons and defense assistance to South Sudan.
The U.S. strongly supported South Sudan’s drive for independence and sought to boost the fledgling nation, in part through agriculture assistance and private investment. The Obama administration also has authorized American investment in South Sudan’s oil sector.
The small deployment of U.S. forces to South Sudan is in contrast to Obama’s decision in October to send about 100 U.S. troops to Africa to help fight the Lord’s Resistance Army guerrilla group in Uganda and elsewhere in Central Africa. The bulk of that deployment was of special operations troops to provide security and combat training to African units as they tried to hunt down the LRA’s leader, Joseph Kony.
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AP National Security Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-sending-5-us-military-officers-sudan-202030764.html
Obama’s Hypocrisy: Skirting ICC to Send Troops to South Sudan
by Lawrence K Freeman
Jan. 11, 2012 (EIRNS)–With President Obama’s decision on Monday,
January 10, authorizing the deployment of troops to South Sudan,
he has begun the process of militarizing US relations with this
newly created nation, amidst reports that the US intends to build
a military base in South Sudan as well. The primary, if only,
purpose for these actions is to either intimidate the government
of Khartoum, or prepare for its over-throw.
The hypocrisy of Obama’s decision is made clear in the
release of the White House memorandum reported below, where his
justification for sending troops is, that South Sudan is a not a
party to the International Criminal Court.
Obama and his belligerent UN Ambassador, Susan Rice, have
used the ICC indictment of Sudanese President Omar al Bashir to
isolate, and strangle the Khartoum government. The ICC arrest
warrant for Bashir, which grew out of the orchestrated conflict
in Darfur, has become a cause célèbre by the rice-flakes in the
Darfur advocacy groups, to create an environment for regime
change in Sudan.
It is now clear to an honest observer, that Obama, Rice, and
all of the anti-Khartoum extremists, never had any concern for
the veracity of the ICC charge, or the welfare of the people of
Sudan. They cynically used this unverified charge for their own
purposes; supporting the ICC when they needed it, and now
avoiding the ICC when it is convenient.
Following the realization of British imperial dreams to
split up Sudan, the people of both North and South Sudan are
suffering, antagonisms between both countries are worsening, and
internal conditions in the South are very fragile.
Who benefits from such a policy, when the people of Sudan
> are in desperate need of the basic necessities of life?
MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE: By the authority vested in
me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United
States of America… concerning the participation of members of the
Armed Forces of the United States in certain United Nations
peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations, I hereby certify
that members of the U.S. Armed Forces participating in the United
Nations Mission in South Sudan are without risk of criminal
prosecution or other assertion of jurisdiction by the
International Criminal Court (ICC) because the Republic of South
Sudan is not a party to the ICC and has not invoked the
jurisdiction of the ICC pursuant to Article 12 of the Rome
Statute.
Lawrence Freeman
EIR magazine
African Desk
(410)747-3817; Cell: (410) 218-6060
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