In
UNSC, Ladsous'
Drones
Questioned by
5, on Who Gets
Info,
Tendering,
ICAO
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 8 --
When the UN's
use of drones
was proposed
to the
Security
Council
Tuesday by
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous, many
focused on
Rwanda being
opposed.
It was an easy
if
mechanical
plot
line: the UN
wants to
assess cross
border arms
flows, but
Rwanda
wants to hide
them.
But
inside the
Security
Council's
closed door
meeting,
Rwanda was far
from the only
member raising
questions.
As
Inner City
Press first
reported in
March when
Ladsous
proposed
drones
to the UN's
C-34,
there are
doubts about
which member
states would
get the
information,
and if Ladsous
as the fourth
Frenchman in a
row
to head UN
Peacekeeping
had already
chosen the
French company
Thales
as the
provider.
Tuesday,
sources
exclusively
tell Inner
City Press,
not only
Russia
(through
co-Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Petr Iliichev)
and China but
also
Azerbaijan and
Guatemala,
both through
their
Permanent
Representatives,
expressed
concern about
Ladsous'
proposed used
of
drones.
The
concerns
ranged from
the control of
information --
that is, who
would
get it -- to
compliance
with
International
Civil Aviation
Organization
rules. And, as
Inner City
Press first
reported,
concerns
were again
expressed
about the
tender process.
Which company
would Ladsous
select?
Thales?
Therefore
while
certainly
Ladsous, who
has repeatedly
refused Inner
City Press
questions
about drones
and his failure
to act on 126
rapes in
Minova
by the
Congolese
Army, his
partners,
would like to
portray the
opposition as
mostly coming
from Rwanda,
that is not
the case.
More
people are
taking note
that Ladsous
was France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
in the UN
Security
Council during
the Rwanda
genocide
in 1994,
and argued to
support the
escape of the
Hutu
genocidaires
into Eastern
Congo.
Now Ladsous
wants to
return with
drones. But he
has
run into
opposition,
more
widespread
than most
report it.
Agence
France-Presse,
quoting
Ladsous,
focused on
Rwanda's
opposition.
AFP
and Ladsous
have
previously
worked
together.
In fact,
Ladsous has
served on one
of AFP's
boards.
Reuters' Lou
Charbonneau
went further,
putting Rwanda
and its
opposition as
the first
words in the
Reuters
headline, here.
Charbonneau
and AFP's Tim
Witcher
previously
withdrew into
the hall with
Ladsous from
the stakeout
where Ladsous
refused Press
questions
about the
rapes in
Minova, video
here.
Speaking
in
favor of
drones on
Tuesday were,
not
surprisingly,
France though
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud,
and his
counterpart
from
Luxembourg.
Major drone
user the
United States
supported the
proposal,
through
Ambassador
Jeffrey de
Laurentis.
But
with the
questions
raised by
Russia, China,
Azerbaijan,
Rwanda and
Guatemala,
some view this
as another
failed
proposal by
Herve
Ladsous,
following his
peacekeepers'
failure in
Goma, his cover up of
his partners'
rapes in
Minova,
and of his
mission's
introduction
of
cholera into
Haiti.
What's
next for the
man some call
Herve "The
Drone"
Ladsous? Watch
this site.
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