Seven
Killed
in Abidjan, 3
Weeks After UN
Proposed
Removing
Battalion
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 7,
updated -- The
UN's
state-media
reporting of
its concern
about an
attack in
Abidjan
which killed
seven Ivorian
soldiers is
incomplete and
therefore
misleading.
The UN
says
that the "head
of UNOCI, Bert
Koenders,
strongly
condemned the
attack,"
without
mentioned that
it was less
than three
weeks ago that
Koenders
blithely
proposed
cutting a full
battalion from
Abidjan saying
things are so
much better
there. Click
here
for that July
17 report by
Inner City
Press.
If
Koenders was
so wrong in
his assessment
of conditions
in the
financial
capital of
Cote d'Ivoire,
some ask why
believe his denial of
ONUCI
wrongdoing
during the
deadly refugee
camp attack
here Duekoue?
An
investigation
had been
promised, amid
on the record
quotes by
survivors that
ONUCI
peacekeepers
pushed them
off trucks and
back into the
mob to be
beaten.
But
two days after
the promise, Koenders
said
everything was
fine, denied
all
allegations of
wrongdoing or
even
negligence.
Even the UN's
response to
Inner City
Press' was
bungled,
perhaps
intentionally
so, click here
for that.
While
among a few
well run UN
mission there
are others
plagued by
incompetence
and
complacency,
the UN Mission
in Cote
d'Ivoire has
had and still
has a conflict
of interest.
The
head of UN
Peacekeeping
is Herve
Ladsous, the
fourth time in
a row the post
has gone to a
Frenchman.
DPKO was used
to oust French
opponent
Laurent Gbagbo
after a tight
election, and
now the
Mission has
reportedly
stood by while
Gbagbo
supporters,
already in a
camp, were
attacked and
at least six
killed.
Then Koenders
denies the
allegations,
and doesn't
even take back
his now
clearly
erroneous
assessment of
the situation
in Abidjan.
That the UN
"reports" on
itself often
corrupting.
When it is
done by or for
DPKO, whose
chief refuses
to take Press
questions
based on
critical
coverage, it
is even worse.
Koenders,
most
than other
SRSGs, seems
to be taking
all of his
lead from
Ladsous.
Whom does it
serve? Watch
this site.
Update:
further
information
comes in, not
from DPKO, but
from Ivorian
source, who
think the
attack was to
coincide with
the National
Day, which
will be
celebrated too
at the UN in
New York.
, 
