In
France's UNSC
Month, No
Burundi, CAR
or MINURSO,
Eritrea
Covered Up
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, June
29 -- With
France in June
presiding over
the UN
Security
Council,
topics it
didn't want to
come up,
didn't. France
is the
penholder on
Burundi, but
did nothing
during its
month to push
forward.
Sources
say it will,
next month,
half-heartedly
appear to push
for the
deployment of
some 200 UN
police,
winking at
Pierre
Nkurunziza to
reject them. A
French
minister
visited
Bujumbura and
nothing came
of it, nothing
was announced.
So too on
Western
Sahara. After
Morocco
expelled more
than 80
members of the
MINURSO
peacekeeping
mission,
during
France's month
nothing was
announce.
Ambassador
Francois
Delattre
amiably told
Inner City
Press of
“positive
momentum,” but
as the month
ends, nothing.
Delattre
specially
mentioned to
end of the
month of
France's
presidency
when Inner
City Press on
June 29 asked
about
Eritrea's
letter to the
Council about
fighting on
its border
with Ethiopia.
Delattre said
France's month
is ending and
so nothing be
done. When the
French Mission
transcribed
the June 29
stakeout, they
entirely
omitted the
Eritrea
question,
quite audible,
Vine
video here. And
so it goes: entre
amis.
On the scandal
of rapes in
Central
African
Republic by
peacekeepers
from France
and from the
UN, justified
by France's
fourth head of
UN
Peacekeeping
in a row Herve
Ladsous,
nothing was
done during
the month.
As
Inner City
Press has
reported
elsewhere,
there's talk
of Ladsous
leaving - not
as should
happen for
linking rapes
to R&R,
but so France
can install a
fifth head of
peacekeeping
in a row,
making it a fait
accompli
to the Next
SG.
When
Ladsous
refused to
answer why his
DPKO let
weapons into
the Malakal
camp in South
Sudan, French
deputy Alexis
Lamek at least
offered some
answer, here.
But when
UNMISS did not
open its gates
as 43 or 400
civilians were
killed, no
Security
Council
meeting was
called. Oh,
Protection.
Delattre did
in fairness
speak about
Colombia and
North Korea, here.
Back
on June 1,
Delattre took
questions on
the Program of
Work, from six
media outlets.
Obvious
topics like
Yemen and the
alleged sexual
abuse in the
Central
African
Republic
including by
French troops
did not come
up among the
selected
questions.
When the press
conference was
abruptly
curtailed,
Inner City
Press asked,
“Western
Sahara?”
Delattre
smiled and
said, “On
travaille”
- we are
working. But
on what?
The
major theme of
France's month
atop the
Council was
peacekeeping.
But Morocco's
ouster of more
than 80
members of the
MINURSO
peacekeeping
mission in
Western Sahara
is a direct
challenge to
peacekeeping.
Many thought
that France,
which has
controlled UN
Peacekeeping
four times in
a row now,
would be more
active in
response to
this
ordering-out
of a
peacekeeping
mission.
The sexual
abuse in CAR,
too, puts UN
peacekeeping,
and the
parallel
French forces,
in a negative
light. These
are topics
Inner City
Press will be
pursuing,
particularly
during this
month. They
are fair
questions and
should be
answered.
It
must be noted
that Herve
Ladsous,
France's
fourth head of
UN
Peacekeeping
in a row,
refuses to
answer Inner
City Press'
questions;
this type of
response to
critical
questions led,
for merely
seeking to
cover an event
in this same
UN Press
Briefing Room,
to Inner City
Press being
ousted (audio
here) and
evicted from
its long time
UN office, video here, New
York Times
here.
This
was raised
to the UN
Human Rights
Council in
Geneva on June
27, here.
Les droits
de
l'homme.
On Yemen, an
NGO filing in
Geneva accuses
France of
violating
international
law and its
obligations,
as the number
one supplier
of arms to
Saudi Arabia
which is
bombing Yemen.
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