Amid
Discussion
of Cutting Cocoa Customs & Paying Gbagbo Army, UN Is
Listening
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 7 -- In and around the UN in New York there is open
talk about trying to cut off Laurent Gbagbo's access to cocoa customs
in Cote d'Ivoire, or to paying bribes to his military to defect.
But
is UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon part of these discussions?
Among
Security
Council members the date of January 16 is named for when payment is
due to Gbagbo's military. One Ambassador told some of the press that
Gbagbo's military is being told that “the ICC is watching,” and
that ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told the Council that not only
Ouattara but also Gbagbo recently called him. France is described as
trying to blockade cocoa custom funds to Gbagbo.
Inner
City Press
on January 7 asked Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky if, during Ban's
video conferences with his envoy in Abidjan Choi Young-jin the two
speak on these topics. “The Mission monitors such developments with
a close eye,” Nesirky replied. He added that “the Mission keep
Headquarters informed... They assess every aspect across the
spectrum.” Audio here, from Minute 18:40.
To
some, this was
a surprising answer.
UN's Ban & Choi, talk of cocoa customs & payments not shown
When Ouattara
called for a Special Forces action
against Gbagbo and Inner City Press asked Nesirky about it, he
replied that the UN favors a diplomatic solution. Watch this site.
Inner
City Press
asked Nesirky how the UN could conclude that the deadly fighting in
Douekou was not related to the Gbagbo - Ouattara standoff. Rather
than explain, Nesirky read out a note that a seven person team from
Abidjan will go to Douekou with aid and to assess. Then what?
* * *
As
UN
Misses
Gbagbo Forces' Deadly Raid on Opposition Office, Ban's Spokesman
Passes Buck to DPKO Missions
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January
4 -- What
is the
UN doing in Cote d'Ivoire and whom
is it protecting? After forces of Laurent Gbagbo raided the offices
of the opposition Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, Inner City Press
asked the UN to confirm whether one or four people had been killed,
and to state where other that the Golf Hotel is it protecting, even
just in Abidjan.
UN
spokesman
Martin Nesirky, who earlier spoke about the ONUCI Mission's
“patrols,” replied that UN peacekeepers had “sought to gain
access but it was not yet possible.”
Inner
City
Press
asked whether the UN was purporting to protect offices of opposition
political parties, or by implication their officials.
“The focus is
the
Golf Hotel,” Nesirky said. As the UN says when civilians are
slaughtered or raped in Eastern Congo, he said UN peacekeepers “can't
be everywhere all the time.” Here we're talking about a foreseeable
attack on an opposition politicial party's office right in Abidjan.
The UN couldn't be there?
Outside
the
UN
Security Council, Inner City Press learned that the Council will in
all probability have consultations on Cote d'Ivoire on January 5.
“We're still consulting” a source told Inner City Press, “but
it looks like it will be tomorrow.
At
the noon
briefing, Nesirky added that he would “defer to [his] colleagues in
the Mission” to provide further answers. Video here,
from
Minute
22:22.
UN's Le Roy meets Ouattara, answers on protection of
offices not shown
Nesirky,
who
is
the spokesman not only for Ban Ki-moon but for the UN Secretariat,
which includes UN peacekeeping missions, increasingly engages in this
passing of the buck. In just the past ten days, he has told Inner
City Press to go ask the UN Mission in Kosovo about a UN judge who
let an organ
theft defendant go free.
He has allowed the
UN - African
Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur to go 11 days without answering a
question about rape by Sudan government officials right next to UN
peacekeepers.
Most recently
Nesirky has told to go ask MINUSTAH in Haiti
how much the UN pays an official. We'll have more on that one, and
the others. Watch this site.
, 
