France
Wants Ladsous'
DPKO to Brief
on DRC,
Stonewalled on
M23, Mai Mai
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 17 --
France called
an emergency
briefing of
the UN
Security
Council for 3
pm on Saturday
in New York,
not on Gaza
but
apparently in
support of a
final push
against the
M23 mutineers
by
the DR Congo
army assisted
by UN
"Peacekeeping."
On
November 13,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
about the
public
statement by
M23 that the
DR Congo
government had
broken a
ceasefire in
place.
Inner
City Press:
M-23 group has
said that
there had been
this formal or
informal
ceasefire in
effect with
the
Government;
they claim
that it
is now, the
Government has
broken it,
they say, by
attacking them
in
Kitagoma, does
MONUSCO
[United
Nations
Organization
Stabilization
Mission in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo]
know about
this
attack? Is
that the
sequence or is
it not the
sequence, and
if, if
there was an
attack did
they play any
role in it?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I will come
back to you on
that. I don’t
have anything
specific at
the moment,
but I will
come back to
you.
But
neither
Nesirky or the
UN Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations,
which is
headed by the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row Herve
Ladsous and
managed
MONUSCO, came
back with any
answer.
Rather,
on
November 16
Nesirky read
out a DPKO
statement
about attacks
in
involving the
M23. Inner
City Press
asked about
another attack
in the
same time
period by a
non-M23 group,
the Mai Mai,
which killed
civilians and
emptied the
town of Pinga:
Inner
City Press: on
the DRC, the
report of this
fighting with
the M23, I
wanted to just
ask you if
MONUSCO or if
you are aware
or have
something to
say on, there
is reportedly
fighting in
the town of
Pinga, also in
northern Kivu.
Doctors
without
Borders say it
has had
to pull its
staff out
again, and
they say that
a UN
peacekeeper
from
South Africa
was injured by
an attack by
the Mayi Mayi
militia, and I
just wonder,
do you have
anything on
that? Are
there groups
other
than M23
attacking this
time and… and
is there any
connection
between these
attacks?
Spokesperson:
Well, there
was an
incident a
couple of days
ago and, I
believe, in
which one or
maybe two
South African
peacekeepers
were hurt. Let
me
check on the
details of
that. I don’t
have any
specific
details on
the location
that you
mentioned
beyond the
ones that I
have spoken
about just
now.
But
Nesirky and
Ladsous' DPKO
never came
back with any
information
about
this other
attack. If
it's not M23,
it doesn't fit
into Ladsous'
(and
France's)
narrative, one
notices.
Now
Ladsous' DPKO
is to brief,
after it
didn't provide
simple answers
to
simple
questions
about the DRC
all week.
After a
Security
Council
meeting this
week, when
Ladsous came
out Inner City
Press put a
question to
him. He looked
but refused to
answer.
In
fact, Ladous
has refused to
answer any
Press
questions
since May,
citing
"insulting
innuendo."
These
apparently
include
Ladsous role
arranging
flights for
disgraced
French foreign
minister
Aliot-Marie in
aircraft of
cronies of
Tunisian
dictator Ben
Ali, and
before that as
French Deputy
Permanent
Representative
at the UN in
1994 during
the Rwanda
genocide.
Is this the
man who should
be
briefing on
DRC, or
heading DPKO?
Watch this
this site.
Footnote:
the set-up
here seems
similar to the
way France
used DPKO in
Cote d'Ivoire.
Should France
head DPKO, or
do briefings
like this? Why
not have the
UK give a
single UNSC
briefing on
the Malvinas /
Falkland
Islands? Or
another P5
member do the
briefing on
Gaza? But this
last
already...
, 
