Ban
Meets Kikwete,
Seeking Troops
for S. Sudan,
No Answer
on FDLR, CAR
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 24 --
To try to move
to South Sudan
five
battalions
of soldiers
from UN
Mission in the
DR Congo, Cote
d'Ivoire,
Abyei,
Darfur and
Liberia,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon has
been working
the phones.
Ban's
Spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
has refused to
hold a
briefing for
the
past two days
and ignored
written
questions for
72 hours. So
when at
12:21 pm on
December 24
the UN
announced that
Ban would
meeting with
Tanzanian
president
Kikwete at
12:30 pm,
Inner City
Press ran to
cover it.
Upstairs
in
Ban's 38th
floor
conference
room sitting
across from
Kikwete were
Ban, his chief
of staff
Susana
Malcorra and
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
deputy Edmond
Mulet. Inner
City Press
tweeted
photographs
here and here.
(The
head of DPKO,
Herve Ladsous,
was last seen
given an
artificially
low
death toll for
South Sudan;
then he
disappeared
from sight. In
any
event, Ladsous
insists he has
a "policy" of
not answer
Press
questions:
video here,
UK
coverage here.)
While
it seems that
the 12:30
meeting with
Kikwete only
came together
at
12:05, Ban's
spokesperson's
office rather
than hold a
briefing sent
out a list of
countries and
leaders Ban
has spoken to
about
"bolstering
the capacity
of the UN
peacekeeping
mission in the
country
(UNMISS)" --
"Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma,
Chairperson of
the African
Union
Commission;
Hailemariam
Dessalegn,
Chairperson of
the African
Union and
Prime
Minister of
Ethiopia; Paul
Kagame,
President of
Rwanda; Joyce
Hilda
Mtila Banda,
President of
Malawi; Jakaya
Mrisho
Kikwete,
President of
Tanzania;
Nawaz Sharif,
Prime Minister
of Pakistan;
Sheikh Hasina,
Prime Minister
of Bangladesh;
and Khil Raj
Regmi, Prime
Minister of
Nepal."
So
Kikwete was
included, 24
minutes after
his meeting
with Ban
began.
But not
included,
among Asian
countries, was
India -- one
wondered,
because of the
two killed
Indian
peacekeeers in
the Akobo camp
last
week?
It's
one thing to
ask the Troop
Contributing
Countries. But
as Inner City
Press reported
yesterday,
Cote d'Ivoire
ambassador
Bamba back in
July
2013 said his
government
disagrees with
pulling UN
peacekeepers
out
of his country
before 2015.
Cote d'Ivoire
is not listed
among Ban's
conversations;
nor is the
Kabila
goverment of
the DRC.
There, pulling
out a
battalion may
impact the
pledged
"neutralization"
of
the Hutu FDLR
militia. But,
Congolese
sources
suggest, maybe
Kabila
is OK with
that -- he is
sending 850 of
his "elite"
troops
to the Central
African
Republic.
More
than 24 hours
ago, Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky a
series of
still
unanswered
questions,
including:
"Given
that
the SG said
'we are now
actively
trying to
transfer our
assets
from other
peacekeeping
missions, like
MONUSCO [the
United Nations
Organization
Stabilization
Mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the
Congo] and
some other
areas' --
which assets
is he / the UN
trying to
transfer out
of the DRC?
How does this
relate to the
UN's pledge to
now move to
neutralize the
FDLR?"
And
"In
Central
African
Republic,
please confirm
civilian(s)
killed by Chad
troops in
MISCA force,
and state
whether there
is any UN
support to
this unit and
if so how the
UN's Human
Rights Due
Diligence
Policy
applies."
Now,
having still
no answer to
these, Inner
City Press has
asked Nesirky:
"In
the
Central
African
Republic,
please confirm
or deny that
Chadian
peacekeepers
fired on
protesters
(and that the
UN will do
about it),
and engaged in
a skirmish
with Burundian
peacekeepers."
Watch
this
site.
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