As 7
More Ivorians
Killed, UN
Peacekeepers
under Ladsous
Did
Nothing
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 7 --
After the killing of
seven Ivorian
soldiers in
Abidjan in the
run up to the
national day
of Cote
d'Ivoire,
Inner
City Press' report
triggered
feedback that
in the
attacked base
was a
sub-base of UN
peacekeepers
from Benin,
who did
nothing as the
invasion of
the base took
place.
After
noting
that the UN as
recently of
July 17
claimed that
it could
without impact
withdraw a
full battalion
from Abidjan,
Inner City
Press
undertook to
verify this
even more
troubling
claim.
Without
any
response or
help from the
UN Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations
under Herve
Ladsous, Inner
City Press was
able to
confirm
the presence
in the base of
the UN
peacekeepers.
And it now
appears
clear that
their
Rwanda-like
inaction was
based on
DPKO's reading
of
its mandate,
to only
protect
civilians and
not the
Ivorian base
that
they were in.
And
so, just as
Gbagbo
supporters
point at ONUCI
inaction as
the camp
near Duekoue
was burned to
the ground and
at least six
killed, now
supporters of
the Ouattara
government
question the
UN's inaction
during the
attack on the
base in
Abidjan.
Often
being
criticized
from both
sides is used
as a mark of
being
objective. But
here, it is a
mark of
incompetence
and inaction,
under
Koenders and
Ladsous. For
shame.
, 
