UNITED
NATIONS, May
17 -- Back on
April
24, that
Dutchman Bert
Koenders
would be given
the UN envoy
job in Mali
was
exclusively
reported, and
criticized,
by Inner City
Press.
Koenders while
head of the
UN's
mission in
another former
French colony,
Cote d'Ivoire,
refused
to
investigate
his
peacekeepers'
role in the
death of
internally
displaced
people
perceived as
Gbagbo
supporters in
the Nahibly
camp.
Amnesty
International,
among others,
has expressed
outrage at
Koenders'
mission's lack
of response.
Once
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
presented
Koenders' name
to Security
Council
members, Inner
City Press went
to the May 15
noon briefing
and asked
Ban's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky:
Back
on 24 April,
Inner City
Press reported
that Bert
Koenders of
the
UNOCI [United
Nations
Operation] in
Côte d'Ivoire
was one of the
final
candidates to
be the Mali
envoy. And now
it appears
that a
letter has
gone to the
Security
Council naming
him as such. I
understand you
probably won’t
confirm it
until the
Council signs
off or not,
but I wanted
to ask this
before that,
maybe even
before
that happens,
the IDP
[internally
displaced
persons] camp
killings at
Nahibly that
took place in
Côte d'Ivoire
that have been
said
repeatedly by
the UN that
they were
being
investigated
and that on
this very
rostrum or
podium,
Amnesty has
called an
outrage, said
that
it hasn’t been
investigated
that the UN
has swept
under the
carpet
its role or
failure to
protect IDPs
who were
killed in
Nahibly. Has
that been
resolved to
the
satisfaction
of the
Secretary-General,
with
regard to Mr.
Koenders and
the mission in
Côte d'Ivoire?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I’ll look at
the last bit,
and on the
first bit, you
are
quite right:
we won’t talk
about
appointments
until it is an
appropriate
time.
But
in the two
days after
that, there
was no answer
on what if
anything
Koenders did
about the
killings, and
after Amnesty
International's
criticism.
Instead, on
May 17 Ban's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey
confirmed that
Koenders is
getting the
Mali job.
(Additionally,
the
other
candidate
cited in Inner
City Press'
April 24
report,
Aïchatou
Mindaoudou
Souleymane
from Niger,
the
former
acting chief
of UNAMID in
Darfur, would
take over in
Cote
d'Ivoire).
So
Koenders is
being rewarded
for siding
with the
government
where he
ran a mission,
and ignoring
or even
covering up
the death of
perceived
opponents.
Not the
profile one
might want in
Mali. But this
is the UN, at
least of the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
under Herve
Ladsous, whom
Koenders
imitates.
Back
on April
26, the UN
refused to
confirm to
Inner City
Press that the
Brazilian
general
best known for
cracking
down on Cite
Soleil in
Haiti,
Carlos Alberto
dos Santos
Cruz, was
becoming DR
Congo Mission
force
commander. But
on Friday, he
too was
confirmed. Mr
Crackdown? What
could go
wrong,
like with
Koenders in
Mali? Watch
this site.
, 
