UN
in
Nairobi Under
Shadow of ICC,
Ban's Lawyer
Cites Rules,
Ignored by
Ladsous
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 10 –
Under the UN's
relationship
with the
International
Criminal
Court, the UN
limits itself
to only
“strictly
necessary”
contacts with
indictees,
outgoing UN
Legal Counsel
Patricia
O'Brien said
Tuesday. She
claimed that
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon takes
this so
seriously that
he has called
her for
advice.
Why
then did Ban
take pictures
with Sudan's
Omar al
Bashir,
indicted for
genocide and
war crimes,
and have his
then-envoy
Ibrahim
Gambari
attend the
wedding of
Bashir's
daughter to
Idriss Deby of
Chad?
The
UN said the
photos with
Bashir were
not of a
meeting. But
now Ban's
(or France's)
chief of UN
Peacekeeping,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row
in the
position Herve
Ladsous, has
met with
Bashir. What
was
accomplished?
What we
know is that
Ladsous
bragged about
keeping a
body of a dead
assailant. The
UN emphasized
that Sudan now
has the
body, and that
Inner City
Press should
ask only Sudan
whether it
will
be buried,
returned to
relatively or
ghoulishly
“kept.”
When
O'Brien spoke
on Tuesday, it
was on the
record; Inner
City Press was
identified as
the only media
there, and the
reasons the
session was
NOT under
“Chatham
House” rules,
but rather on
the record.
Beyond what
else Inner
City Press has
reported, for
example on Haiti
cholera,
it emerged
that the
UN has major
problems with
the ICC
summons to
Kenya's
elected
leaders.
The
UN has one of
its
headquarters
in Nairobi. In
this context,
what
would
“strictly
necessary”
contacts be –
discussing
logistics?
Groundskeeping?
Visas? Under
Ladsous'
rules, all
would seem to
qualify.
O'Brien
who
is now headed
to Geneva to
openly
represent her
country –
contra Ladsous
– said it is a
good thing
that the
Kenyan duo,
Kenyatta and
Ruto, are only
so far subject
to a summons
by the ICC
and “are
cooperating.”
If that
changed, it
would be
difficult for
the UN in
Nairobi, she
said.
But
not, it seems
clear, under
the Ladsous
rules.
Anything goes!
Watch
this site.
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