French
PR Delattre
Takes No
Question on
Burundi, Mali,
CAR, “I Have
to Run”
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
3 -- When
French
Ambassador
Francois
Delattre said
he would
answer answers
about his
upcoming month
as UN Security
Council
president, it
seemed that Central
African
Republic and
Burundi, to
which Delattre
has planned
and controlled
a Council trip
he calls
important,
and former
French
colonies on
the Council's
agenda like
Mali and Cote
d'Ivoire could
be asked
about.
But no.
Instead,
Delattre's
press attache
steered
between Agence
France Presse
and Le Monde,
Gulf media and
the Reuters
wire which had
already
planted a
Libya naval
embargo
question with
the UNCA
head for
whom the first
question was
set
aside.
(The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
opposes such
self-serving
set-asides.)
No question
was taken
about any of
the former
French
colonies which
fill up the
agenda of the
Security
Council and of
UN
Peacekeeping,
which France
has controlled
four times in
a row.
There
is a history
here, which
one hoped
would be just
that, history,
but which
there will be
other times to
review. Will
Delattre
always "have
to run"?
(Inner City
Press has
asked
questions at
all of the
last Program
of Work press
conferences
held by other
presidencies,
going
backwards: China, Chile, Chad,
Australia,
etc.)
Recently under
Herve Ladsous,
who relatedly
refuses
Press
questions,
UN
Peacekeeping
has hit new
lows, with for
example an
OIOS
investigation
showing that
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Ouattara of
Cote d'Ivoire
has taken
bribes to sell
UN post in
MONUSCO in the
DR Congo --
which has
again refused
to fight the
FDLR -- and in
MINUSTAH in
Haiti.
That document
-- in French --
Inner City
Press has put
online here,
as credited
by, for
example, The
Independent
(UK).
Delattre said
that the
anti-Boko
Haram Multi
National Joint
Task Force is
very important
to France. But
in March 3
Program of
Work is it
only a
footnote -
and,
significantly,
it was not
even a
footnote in
France's draft
Program of
Work of
February 24,
which Inner
City Press
published
here.
At the end,
Inner City
Press said
clearly, “One
question on
Burundi?” It
chose that
because the
Security
Council is
traveling
there this
month, and
France “has
the pen” on
the country.
But Delattre
shrugged and
said, in
English, “I
have to run.”
Here are
France's draft
“Terms of
Reference”
for Burundi
and Central
African
Republic (and
the African
Union visit)
which were
leaked to
Inner City
Press by a
country not
enamored by
France's
domination of
peacekeeping
for its former
colonies:
France's
African Trip
Draft "Terms
of Reference,"
Burundi, CAR,
African Union
by Matthew
Russell Lee
What
about the
Cibitoke
massacre in /
by Burundi?
We'll have
more on this.
, 
