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At UN, Peacekeeping and Food Snafus Kept
Out of France's EU Celebration
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
July 1 -- Just as French president
Nicolas Sarkozy accused EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson of not
sufficiently defending European agricultural
subsidies, France's Ambassador to
the UN Jean-Maurice Ripert on Tuesday bragged about the EU's food
surpluses and
claimed that EU has reformed its agricultural policies.
It was just the first day of France's six
month EU presidency, and Ripert held a tightly controlled press
conference to
show off France's "simple" logo and claim that the EU's 27 members
provide more soldiers and police -- if you add them together -- to UN
Peacekeeping
than Pakistan, eleven thousand to 10,623. Ripert noted that "two-thirds
of
the texts adopted by the Security Council" are drafted by France or the
UK, and that on "Africa, the main subject of concern of the Council,
seventy to eighty percent of the texts" are French or British. Video here,
from Minute 8:05.
Of course,
this European domination over Africa might be the result of
colonialism, or
show the need for Security Council reform. But such questions were not
allowed
in Ripert's press conference, in advance of which swag bags of
briefcases and
pens were handed out. After Ripert gave
a lengthy speech occupying more than half of the allotted time, his
staff
hand-selected the questioners, directly the UN technicians with
microphone whom
to go to. Questions in French, questions about Turkey or Iran, nothing
on the
Africa or peacekeeping policy of the EU or France.
There are
questions to be asked and answered. In 2003, the EU's goal was to be
able to
project 60,000 troops in 60 days and maintain them for a year. But for
EUFOR in
Chad,
there were months of delays, and finally the EU rented Russian
helicopters for the deployment. Ripert mention EUFOR alongside "Artemis
in
the DRC," a mission whose French component is
accused of torture by no
less than its Swedish colleagues. What about Senegalese
President Wade's
request that France close its military base in Dakar? No such
questions were
allowed.
Amb. Ripert applauding, answers about Deby,
Artemis and agriculture not shown
Afterwards,
Inner City Press asked the UN's Jomo K.S. to respond to France's
positions on
agricultural policy. Jomo spoke of "confusion" and the French
government's comments, and said that greater commitment to food
security is
needed. So how will France's EU presidency play out? If the first day
was any
guide, not well.
Footnotes: After
his staff had said "last
question," Ripert looking relieved yelled to a reporter that upon his
return from the Security Council's June 1 to 10 trip to Africa, "I was
sick for ten days... I spent two thousand dollars but they couldn't
find
anything. I hope it doesn't come back." One wag in the audience
said that
perhaps some of the mysterious sickness was due to the snub in Chad
by
President Deby -- itself attributed by some now to Deby's physical
sobriety --
or to anger at being passed over for the UN Peacekeeping post in favor
of
fellow
Frenchman Alain Le Roy.
Questions on
both topics should have been
allowed, but just as Sarkozy locked out the non-French press last
September,
and French ministers are produced only for select reporters, now even
ostensibly
open press conferences are held under over-strict control. Liberte
d'expression et de la presse? Watch this site.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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