With
France Atop
UNSC, No Qs on
Yemen, W.
Sahara or
Sangaris, Yet
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, June
1 -- With
France taking
over the
monthly
presidency of
the UN
Security
Council, on
June 1 its
Ambassador
Francois
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? Periscope
video here,
at 27:30.
The
major theme of
France's month
atop the
Council is
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.
There
was a Burundi
(un) free
press
questions
Inner City
Press wanted
to ask, but it
was not
possible. Yet.
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.
We'll have
more on this -
and the role
of the other
P3 members -
during this
month.
During the
press
conference,
Delattre
announced that
the Council
had agreed to
a Press
Statement on
North Korea.
, 
