Stalled
on
Mali Coup,
ECOWAS Decay
Bemoaned at
UN,
Gambari Last
African?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 16 --
"Obasanjo used
to get in this
plane and go
tell people
what they had
to do," a old
ECOWAS hand
complained
to Inner City
Press on
Thursday,
referring to
what he called
Nigeria's
declining
power,
including in
the West
African States
regional group
ECOWAS.
"Now
Goodluck
Jonathan is
distracted so
Burkina Faso
is trying to
pick up
the slack," he
continued.
"But just look
at it, the
decay.
The people in
Mali, they
aren't scared
of ECOWAS."
And
in Guinea
Bissau, ECOWAS
has a showdown
with the
Portuguese-speaking
states,
particularly
Angola. Watch
for another
coup d'etat,
the
complaining
oracle
concluded,
shaking his
head.
In
Mali the fear
is that
interim
President
Dioncounda
Traore has
promised
Cheikh Modibo
Diarra some
high-profile
position.
While
France when it
took over the
presidency of
the Security
Council 16
days ago vowed
to take action
on Mali, at
last stakeout
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
told Inner
City Press ECOWAS still
hasn't come in
with
the needed
information,
approvals or
any request
for funds.
Meanwhile
at
the African
Union level
there is
concern that Ibrahim
Gambari,
just
unceremoniously
ousted
from the top
job at the
Darfur
peacekeeping
mission,
might not be
replaced by an
African.
"Look
at the UN
Missions in
West Africa,"
a AU diplomat
told Inner
City
Press, using Bert
Koenders in
Cote d'Ivoire
as the
example, while
citing Liberia
and Sierra
Leone. "All
Europeans.
South Sudan
too. And now
Darfur?" Is
Gambari the
last of the UN
Africans?
Watch this
site.
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