DRC
Despite
Drones &
UN as
Combatant Is
But a Footnote
For September
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 4 --
The UN has
taken an
unprecedented
turn in the
Eastern Congo,
deploying
attack
helicopters
and, under
Herve Ladsous,
drones,
turning its
troops into
combatants,
parties to an
armed
conflict.
But
in the UN
Security
Council
provisional
program of
work
distributed
Wednesday by
the incoming
Australian
presidency,
"DRC" is
only a
footnote.
On
Wednesday
afternoon
Inner City
Press asked
Australia's
Permanent
Representative
Gary Quinlan
why that is,
if there
shouldn't be
more
oversight of
what Quinland
called the
MONUSCO
mission's
"forward
leaning"
approach.
Inner
City Press
asked about
the Council's
last MONUSCO
press
statement on
the issue of
combatants (see here,
and here
for France's
refusal to
answer),
and if MONUSCO
should be
attacking the
M23 group in
areas assigned
to it in the
Kampala deal
under which it
withdrew from
Goma.
Quinlan
responded
that "we may
want to
suggest it go
on agenda,
once the
diplomatic
process is
sorted in next
couple days."
UN envoy Mary
Robinson is
there -- click
here for
Inner City
Press' exclusive
interview
with Rwanda's
Permanent
Representative
Eugene-Richard
Gasana --
among with
envoys from
the EU,
African Union
and Russ
Feingold of
the US. But
what about
Ladsous'
drones?
Quinlan
said,
"this question
of do people
become
combatants,
the issue
is legally
unresolved.
You might
address it,
Matthew, to
DPKO and at
the Legal
Office."
Inner City
Press did
ask Patricia
O'Brien of
the Legal
Office, and
she made it
clear the
Intervention
Brigade, and
perhaps all of
MONUSCO, are
parties to the
armed
conflict.
But
apparently
Ladsous is
arguing
differently,
and having the
UN
Secretariat
stonewall for
him. Watch
this site.
, 
