French
Drafted
Statement on
CAR Doesn't
Have Bozize's
Exit Or Child
Soldiers
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 11 --
Just after the
UN Security
Council was briefed
Friday morning
about the
Central
African
Republic,
the French
Mission
announced that
the Council
would issue a
press
statement.
Unlike last
Friday's CAR
fiasco, UN
Television
left their
camera up.
But
as later
afternooon
arrived, still
there was no
Council
statement on
CAR. A Council
source told
Inner City
Press, they're
still working
on
it. Then after
5 pm, Council
President
Masood Khan of
Pakistan
emerged to
read the
statement.
There
was less media
interest than
last
Friday on CAR,
or yesterday
on
Mali,
another
failing former
French colony.
In fact, only
Inner City
Press posed
questions to
Khan about the
statement,
three of them
in
total.
Inner
City Press
asked if the
statement
meant the UN
Security
Council was
taking note
and relying on
President
Bozize's
commitment not
to run
for another
term in 2014.
Khan said, we
didn't get
into that
level
of detail.
To
some that
seems
problematic,
since it's
Bozize's
failure to
follow
through on
previous
agreements
that had led
in large part
to the
current
crisis.
Inner
City Press
asked if
anything is
being done to
finally find a
chair
for the UN
Peacebuilding
configuration
on CAR, a
position left
open
for months as
the European
Union has
tried to get
it despite
opposition
since it it
not a UN
member state.
The
EU could have
known this
would be
raised, given
the fight
involving
CARICOM and
others to the
EU trying to
speak before
member states
in the General
Assembly.
Khan
said there is
work going on
in this regard
but that he
didn't have
the details.
Earlier on
Friday an EU
source told
Inner City
Press
they still
want and
deserve the
chair, as the
largest donor,
but
they're
waiting to see
how this most
recent
Libreville
agreement is
implemented.
Finally
Inner
City Press
asked Khan
about sexual
violence in
conflict envoy
Zainab Hawa
Bangura having
recounted how
a planned
remobilization
of
child soldiers
from the CPJP
rebels went
bad, with the
children moved
at the last
minute and the
rebels
insisting that
girl child
soldiers
were wives of
the
combatants.
Inner
City Press
asked, will
the UN follow
up on these
particular
child
soldiers?
Khan
said Council
members had
been outraged.
We'll see.
Too
often the UN
and Security
Council do not
follow up, on
such specific
cases like for
example the
case of the 126 rapes
by the
Congolese
Army in Minova
and DPKO's
Herve Ladsous
refusing to
answer
which
FARDC units
were there,
and if MONUSCO
works with
them.
That one is
directly in
the Council's
(and OHCHR's)
purview -- yet
nothing has
yet be done.
And what about
these
proffered then
withdrawn
child
soldiers and
sex slaves in
the Central
African
Republic? The
Council heard
about them,
and they
continue in
captivity.
Will they
simply be
forgotten?
Watch this
site.
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