On
DRC, France
Seeks UN
Sanctions on
M23, No Call
on Kabila to
Talk
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 19 --
After the M23
mutineers got
to the gates
of
Goma and
turned back,
giving
Congolese
president
Joseph Kabila
24
hours to
negotiate,
when French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
arrived at
the UN
Security
Council Monday
morning this
is not what he
raised.
Instead,
Araud
said his
instructions
from Paris are
to circulate a
resolution
to sanction
the M23
leaders.
Cynics wonder
what this
would
accomplish: do
they travel or
keep their
funds in bank
accounts?
Araud
said the
Council was
united on
Saturday to
pass a press
statement --
which he said
the M23
ignored -- and
so he expects
this sanctions
resolution
"before you
eat your
turkey" --
that is,
before
American
Thanksgiving
on Thursday,
November 22.
Inner
City Press on
Saturday asked
UN
Peacekeeping
boss Herve
Ladsous who
broke the
ceasefire in
the Kivus on
November 9.
Ladsous
refused to
answer,
directing his
spokesman to
tell UN staff
to keep the
microphone
away from
Inner
City
Press.
So
on Sunday,
after a DRC
representative
replied that
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon had
scheduled a
conversation
with Kabila
that
day, Inner
City Press
asked the UN
to confirm it,
and asked why
Ban
spoke Saturday
with Paul
Kagame of
Rwanda, but
not Kabila.
Another
Ladsous
spokesman
replied, among
other things,
that "who
broke
the ceasefire"
was a
"distraction"
-- no, it's a
factual
question that
the UN,
spending as it
does in the
Congo,
should be able
to answer,
should HAVE to
answer -- but
declined to
answer about
any Ban call
to Kabila.
And
twelve hours
later, there
is still no
answer.
Some
say the UN has
given Kabila a
blank check,
to the extend
that his
soldiers won't
even fight the
M23: he counts
on the UN,
largely
Indian and now
perhaps
Pakistani
troups, to do
it for him.
Most
places in the
world, the UN
says
"negotiate."
But not in
the Congo.
This increases
dysfunction.
Speaking
of
dysfunction,
Ladsous walked
into the
Security
Council Monday
morning, not
on the DRC but
rather on
piracy. The
sea is in his
blood. More on
this to
follow. Watch
this site.
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