...an international organization whose stated aim of facilitating interational security involves making sure that nobody with live ammo is offended unless it's a civilized country...
has moved hundreds of peacekeepers to a troubled state in South Sudan ahead of an expected government offensive against a rebel group, a U.N. envoy said.
The deployment comes as U.N. leader
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
about extrajudicial killings by the South Sudan army and its "reprehensible" downing of a U.N. helicopter in December, in a report to be discussed by the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.
The U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has moved the peacekeepers into Jonglei state, the scene of large-scale massacres ahead of a government operation against fighters loyal to rebel leader David Yau Yau.
"We are expecting a military operation against David Yau Yau to happen quite soon," UNMISS chief Hilde Johnson said.
The former Norwegian government minister raised fears that civilians could be caught up in the offensive.
"If the military operations start, as we think they might quite soon, we will have to be present on the ground to protect civilians to the maximum extent possible," she said at the International Peace Institute on Monday.
UNMISS has a mandate to protect civilians in South Sudan but does not carry out operations with government forces against rebel forces. "If the perpetrator also is the government's own army we have a challenge on our hands," she said.