On
CAR, Araud
Denies August
Inaction Due
to Vacation,
Haiti Up to
Ban
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 10 --
A Central
African
Republic
resolution was
belatedly
adopted by the
UN Security
Council on
Thursday,
after more
than two
months of
delay.
Afterward
Inner City
Press asked
French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
why no action
had been taken
back in
August. Video
here, from
Minute 3:58.
Araud
said it was
silly to
suggest that
France wasn't
working hard.
He
blamed the
delay on the
obscurity of
CAR, that it
is not on the
front
pages of
American
newspapers.
But
as Inner City
Press
reported in
August, from
multiple
sources inside
and outside
the Council,
the United
States was
said to expect
a CAR
resolution in
August, after
their
presidency
ended in July.
But, the
sources --
including in
the French
mission --
said, France
explained
that nothing
would be done
in August
because of
vacations,
including
Araud's.
France
"has the pen"
on CAR, as it
does on the
Democratic
Republic
of the Congo,
Cote d'Ivoire,
Mali and other
parts of its
colonial
heritage. When
it won't
draft, nothing
happens.
On
DRC,
France abused
its
"pen holding"
to chosen
which pens (or
laptops) would
go
cover the
Security
Council's trip
not only to
DRC but
also to Uganda
(led by the
UK),
Ethiopia and,
notably,
Rwanda.
Rwanda
was not
consulted on
which
journalists
had asked to
go on the
trip,
and which
France hand
picked and
which it
banned. This
is
colonialism.
After
Araud spoke,
Inner City
Press asked
the outgoing
representative
of
the Central
African
Republic what
he thought of
Araud's saying
the
situation in
CAR is not an
emergency, so
there would be
no force like
"Serval" in
Mali, but
rather perhaps
one like
"Licorne"
(Unicorn) in
Cote d'Ivoire.
The
CAR
representative
diplomatically
said that
since CAR is
such a
"foreign
country," they
have to take
what they can
get and
hope for more
in the future.
They call it
FranceAfrique.
Inner
City Press
also asked
Araud about
the lawsuit
filed against
the UN
for bringing
cholera to
Haiti.
Araud replied,
that's your
assessment,
that it's
pretty clear
the UN brought
the cholera.
Yes, it is.
And of doctors
and clinicians
and even those
who issued the
UN's first,
whitewash
report.
Araud
said defense
of the lawsuit
is up to Ban
Ki-moon. When
Inner City
Press asked
about Haiti's
Prime Minister
Laurent
Lamothe saying
the UN has
"moral
responsibility"
for cholera,
Araud called
the phrase
"vague."
We'll have
more on this.
Watch this
site.
, 
