Peacekeepers
in Abyei Still
Without
Medevac as Le
Roy Leaves, 1%
Positive to
Come
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 8 --
After the
bleed-out
death of three
UN
peacekeepers
in Abyei and
US Ambassador
Susan Rice
saying as her
"personal
opinion" that
the UN should
have flown a
medevac
helicopter in
from South
Sudan even
without
permission,
Inner City
Press asked
outgoing UN
Peacekeeping
chief Alain Le
Roy to
respond.
"Before
giving
a full answer
I have to
brainstorm,"
said Le Roy,
who is
leaving UN
service on
August 10. "A
decision to
take that kind
of risk, we
have to
brainstorm
with our
people."
Inner
City Press
asked Le Roy
if tomorrow,
if a
peacekeeper
needs medevac,
the UN will
fly in from
Wau in South
Sudan. "We
cannot," Le
Roy
answered. So
what's to
brainstorm?
It
was Le Roy's
final briefing
of the Council
after three
years atop the
UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
(DPKO).
As
he went up the
stairs from
the Security
Council, Le
Roy chided
Inner City
Press for
not having
devoted "one
percent" to
praise of
DPKO.
We'll
do so -- but
it's because
the Security
Council, even
the Permanent
members, don't
do oversight
of DKPO, and
because the UN
and DPKO don't
even go
outside to
engage with
protesters
like those in
front of the
UN on
August 5
asking
reparations
for the
introduction
of cholera to
Haiti,
or who stoned
DPKO's Roger
Meece in the
Congo last
month, that
the
Press focuses
on oversight
and not
praise.
Le Roy in
Liberia, per
the UN's own
media, more
than 1%
That
said, we don't
dispute Le
Roy's
statement that
if one called
the President
of
Liberia she
would praise
DPKO. For now
for our 1% --
and to futher
explain why
oversight is
what's need --
we'll link
to the UN's
own
self-coverage
/ propaganda
about its good
works there.
Actually, even
the UN News
Service has
not covered
Liberia in the
past 45 days.
But we note
that there are
peacekeepers
who,
indeed, share
their rations
with those
they are sent
to protect.
Le
Roy said that
in his final
briefing of
the Council,
all fifteen
members
praised his
three years.
So we'll
report that.
But see above.
And... watch
this
site.
On
Abyei,
Susan Rice
Says UN Should
Have Flown in
from S. Sudan
w/o Permission
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 8 -- As
three
Ethiopian
peacekeepers
lay injured by
a
land mine in
Abyei last
week, the
UN asked
Khartoum for
permission to
fly in a
helicopter
from Wau in
South Sudan.
"That's
a different
country,"
Sudanese
authorities
reportedly
replied. By
the time a
medical
evacuation
helicopter
arrived from
Kadugli in
Southern
Kordofan,
considered
Sudan proper,
the
peacekeepers
had died.
Outside
a UN
Security
Council
meeting on the
subject on
Monday, Inner
City Press
was told by
sources that
US Ambassador
Susan Rice
inside was
saying
that the UN
should not
have "given
Sudan a veto"
over
flights into
the "no man's
land" of
Abyei, but
should just
have flown.
When
Ambassador
Rice left the
meeting, Inner
City Press
asked her,
"should they
have flown
from Wau
without
waiting to get
permission?"
"Yes,
in my
opinion,"
Ambassador
Rice said.
She
paused then
continued,
"there's a
risk involved
in that and we
all have an
interest in
the security
of
peacekeepers.
But at a
certain point
you
gotta weigh
the risk of
the helicopter
crew, if they
had been
notified that
it was coming
and the tail
number, then
the government
would have
been
responsible if
it had done
something
untoward."
In Wau, Susan
Rice on the
mic, opinion
personal?
"It's
not
beyond them to
do something
untoward,"
Rice said.
"But the
loss of these
peacekeepers
may have been
prevented."
Again
she paused,
for emphasis.
"That my
personal
opinion, I
expressed it
in
there, but
it's my
personal
opinion."
But
when the US
Permanent
Representative
to the UN
makes a point
in the
Security
Council, is it
a personal
opinion? Watch
this site.
* * *
, 
in