UN's Guehenno Denounces But Won't Quote Ivorian Alpha Blondy, Rubber Bullets Suspended

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, July 13 -- The head of UN peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno of France, on Friday said "we take strong exception" to the comments in Cote d'Ivoire of UN messenger for peace (and reggae star) Alpha Bondy.

            Inner City Press asked Mr. Guehenno to specify which of Alpha Blondy's comments were "unacceptable." Video here, from Minute 11:24. Reportedly, it was the accusation that France played a role in the shooting down of the plane of Ivorian prime minister Guillaume Soro.

            Mr. Guehenno replied, "It's not for me to publicize statements with which we strongly disagree." One reporter at the Security Council stakeout muttered, which we does he mean, the UN or France or both?

Alpha Blondy with the UN Mission, back in the day

            Also in response to a question from Inner City Press, Mr. Guehenno stated that the UN has "suspected the use of rubber bullets," which he said could, if correctly used, be tools for "effective crowd control and law and order." Video here, from Minute 10:19.

            Following the deaths of two demonstrators in Kosovo, shot with 13 year old rubber bullets by Romanian UN peacekeepers, the use of this "tool" was suspended in Kosovo, it was announced on July 3. Inner City Press immediately asked the two spokespeople for the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations which other missions, and which troop contributing countries (TCCs), used rubber bullets. Their response came through Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office on July 6:

"DPKO will be proposing sending a team to all the missions where FPUs have this type of ordnance. They will look into what they have, how they are trained and how these assets are employed. Following their report we will THEN go to relevant TCC/PCCs with a proposal on this issue."

            If that DPKO statement was true on July 6, then something must have changed. Because on July 12 in Pristina, the UN announced that it was suspending the use of rubber bullets system-wide. No update was provided at UN Headquarters, not even to the media which asked this specific question. To another media, DPKO's spokesman specified that the suspension is now in effect in five other UN missions equipped with rubber bullets: East Timor, Haiti, Liberia, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

            Following Thursday's report by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services that a Pakistani UN peacekeeper facilitated the illicit gold trade in the DRC, the UN announced on Friday that Peacekeeping and its new adjunct Department of Field Support will be conducting a management review of MONUC mission. Mr. Guehenno said the review will look at "management structures." We note that the U.S. government has announced that the current head of the UN mission, William Lacy Swing, is the U.S. candidate to take over the International Organization for Migration.

            Is William Lacy Swing distracted? 

            Relatedly, is Ban Ki-moon distracted? How else to explain the months and months now without Special Representatives of the Secretary General in the UN's Cote d'Ivoire and Congo missions? To be continued.

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