Whitewashing
FrancAfrique,
NYT Omits
Ladsous, Cote
d'Ivoire,
Abandoned CAR
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 29 --
France's
interventions
in Mali and
now
Central
African
Republic are spun
in today's New
York Times by
Alan
Cowell
into a new,
more
humanitarian
and UN /
multilateral
approach
than in the
past.
But
Cowell omits
that France
has controlled
UN
Peacekeeping
for sixteen
years, most
recently
through Herve
Ladsous,
and uses the
UN in
colonial
fashion for
example in
Cote d'Ivoire.
Even
on Central
African
Republic,
France is
hardly the
hero. It
propped up
Bokassa and
then Bozize;
this summer's
inaction on
CAR in the
Security
Council was
attributable
to France,
which "holds
the
pen" on CAR as
on other
former
colonies,
going on
vacation
for
all of August,
as Inner City
Press reported
from sources
inside the
Council.
To
others,
Cowell's
failure to
mention
France's and
Ladsous' still
outrageous
role in during
the Rwanda
genocide in
1994 speaks
volumes.
Ladsous
was then
France's Deputy
Permanent
Representative
in the UN
Security
Council,
arguing for
the escape of
the
genocidaires
into
Eastern Congo,
over which
Ladsous stands
poised to
deploy drones
on
December 1, on
which it also
takes over
presidency of
the Security
Council.
During
the Council's
October 2013
trip through
Africa, France
got itself
declared the
overall
"leader" of
the trip,
through Rwanda
for example is
on the
Council, and
was seen as
abusing that
power in
ways large and
small.
Yes, France is
"using" the UN
-- but
it is also
ABuse.
Cowell
reports from London,
quoting
Rue89's Pierre
Haski and a
person -
we'll leave
him unnamed --
from Chatham
House. Is this
whitewash the
result of the
Chatham House
rules? Watch
this site.
, 
