Leaked
French
Memos Discuss Destablizing Gbagbo, Coup Plots & Leaders
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, 2d in Exclusive series
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 13 -- French government documents obtained by Inner City
Press reflect, as far back as 2005, France and the UN wanted to “put
in place a plan of action to destablize Laurent Gbagbo.” See
document here,
under the rubric “From New York: Departure of Gbagbo.”
The
French were
monitoring, to say the least, plans for a coup d'etat against Gbagbo,
that would result in Gbagbo's “displacement”
outside of Cote
d'Ivoire. See document here.
France's
internal
reporting on military
forces and leaders in Cote d'Ivoire is here.
Also
obtained by
Inner City Press is the French analysis of the “failure” of
African leaders Tandja,
Mbeki of South Africa and Obasanjo of
Nigeria -- later given UN mandates and pay elsewhere. Click here and
here
for
French analyses of the three heres, and here again for
a French memo on the intentions of Guillaume Soro, referring to
another childhood friend of Gbagbo and his “ethnie Bete” -- Bete
ethnicity.
After
Inner City
Press' publication
on April 8 of the first installment in this series,
which endeavors to use primary documents as background to recent
action in Cote d'Ivoire -- as well as to question why a
French
diplomat, Romain Serman, arrested in New York for attempt purchase of
cocaine and resisting arrest, has resurfaced as France's general
consul in San Francisco -- Yousoufou Bamba, who has represented the
forces of Alassane Ouattara at the UN for months, called Inner City
Press.
Bamba,
who has
always been amiable and on the record, complained he thought Inner
City Press is “being used,” adding that in Ivory Coast, these
French documents are seen as helping Gbagbo. But question then the
contents of the documents.
And
on l'affaire
Serman, France has not come forward with any explanation of
re-sending Serman or of the other documents -- such explantions or
comment would of course be published here -- and the US
Mission to the UN has yet to answer questions it confirms it received
from Inner City Press over the weekend, to know
as
quickly
as possible, whether the US was informed / aware of French
diplomat Romain Serman's arrest in New York in 2006 for attempted
purchase of cocaine and resisting arrest before Serman re-appeared in
the US as France's current general consul in San Francisco.
See,
e.g., http://www.innercitypress.com/nypd1serman.pdf
Separately,
please
comment on the applicability of US law and precedent to this
case, l'affaire Serman.
This
is something
the US State Department should be able to answer. Watch this site.
* * *
After
Fleeing
NY Cocaine Charge, French Diplomat Serman Resurfaces in
San
Francisco as
Sarkozy
Consul : Press Questions
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
April
10 -- When French diplomat Romain Serman was arrested
in Manhattan in 2006 for “attempting to purchase cocaine” and
resisting arrest, he never faced trial or punishment.
As
reflected in
the New York
Police Department arrest document Inner City Press has exclusively
published,
here, Serman immediately -- or after resisting
arrest -- insisted to police that he was a diplomat with the French
Mission to the United Nations.
Yet,
after
fleeing
the US to escape this charge in 2006, Serman has re-appeared
in the US representing France as its general consul in San Francisco.
Several sources interviewed by Inner City Press say this is legally
problematic, and may reflect a failure to disclose by France,
negligence by the United States -- or both.
When
Serman
signed
the
arrest document, he added “Dip. Fr” after his name. And,
sure enough, under then French
Permanent Representative to the UN
Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, Serman left the United States before any
trial on the charge of purchasing cocaine.
Back
in
Paris,
Serman was not punished, but rather continued to work for President
Nicolas Sarkozy, on Africa and other issues.
In
July 2010,
Serman was sent back to the United States, to become France's General
Consul in San Francisco.
Serman gives French award to WWII veteran in Sacramento
Most recently
Serman hosted Sarkozy minister
Frederic Mitterrand during a visit
to
San Francisco where he met,
among others, executive of Google, Amazon and Apple, and linked his
visit to what he called the Facebook revolution in Egypt.
Click here
for Serman's statements on his Twitter account, here for a video of
Serman speaking in
Salt Lake City about the education of children.
Six
hours after Inner City
Press published
Serman's
arrest document as part of an investigative
story on France's policy and actions regarding its now war torn
former colony the Ivory Coast / Cote d'Ivoire, Inner City Press was
admonished that the publication, particularly of the arrest record,
was
gratuitous.
But
several
diplomatic sources, including in the US Mission to the UN, whom Inner
City Press interviewed prior to publication said that Serman to
re-appear in the United States as a French diplomat after he fled the
country to escape charges of purchasing cocaine and resisting arrest
is problematic.
It
is illegal, one
diplomat said, citing a provision of 8 U.S. Code Section 1101
regarding “a failure to appear before a court pursuant to a court
order to answer to or dispose of a charge.”
In
this case, the
well placed source said, while Serman may have tacitly been allowed
to flee the United States as a diplomat, he was “not supposed to
come back in, as a diplomat.”
The
source said
that when he has been sent to other countries, it has always been
vetted by the country to which he was sent, seeking “agreement,”
a French diplomatic word meaning consent.
He noted that
this comes at a time when the US is
using visa law to block diplomatic status for some at the UN in New York.
This
diplomat
wondered
whether this is a case in which France falsely did not
disclose the previous charge against Serman when he was sent to San
Francisco last year, or whether US authorities were “negligent”
-- or both.
Inquiries
are
being
made. Watch this site.
, 
