As
ECOWAS
Proposes 3000
Troops to
Mali, Portugal
& ICP Ask
Questions
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 15 --
Mali was the
topic when the
UN Security
Council
met ECOWAS on
Friday behind
closed doors
in the UN's
North Lawn
building.
Outside
the
meeting, Inner
City Press
learned from
sources that
Portugal was
asking the
hardest
questions
inside, "still
mad about
being
sidelined on
Guinea
Bissau," as
one diplomat
put it.
ECOWAS
is asking
for a Security
Council
resolution to
authorize,
among other
things, a
stand-by force
of 3000
soldiers to go
into Mali and
support the
remaining
government
based in
Bamako.
Inner
City Press
asked ECOWAS'
Commissioner
for Political
Affairs
Salamatu
Hussaini
Suleiman with
whom mediator
Blaise
Campaore would
talk: Ansar al
Dine? The
MNLA? AQIM?
She
said ECOWAS
will not
negotiate with
terrorists. So
who is
excluded?
Inner
City Press
asked ECOWAS
Commission
President
Kadre Desire
OUEDRAOGO how
many
troops would
be sent to
Mali. Three
thousand, he
said. Video
here,
from Minute
2:08 - French!
Inner City
Press asked
about
Portugal's
questions, and
later heard
from
Portugal's
Permanent
Representative
Cabral that he
didn't back
off the
questions,
just said the
Council should
focus on
offering
political
support.
Back
at the
stakeout Inner
City Press
asked Ivorian
Defense
Minister Paul
Koffi KOFFI if
the attack in
his
country that
killed seven
UN
peacekeepers
from Niger
also, as Inner
City Press
heard, killed
at least one
Ivorian
security
person.
He
did not answer
this question
directly,
but Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
on June 14
answered what
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
"The Drone"
Ladsous
refused to
earlier in the
week: that one
Cote d'Ivoire
security
person was
killed:
Inner
City
Press: Various
diplomats
including from
the Ivorian
mission have
said that
beyond the
seven Nigerois
peacekeepers
that were
killed,
there were
somewhere
between one
and three
Ivorian
security
forces
killed in the
same attack. I
wanted to know
if the UN is
aware of
that. I tried
to ask Mr.
Ladsous, but
he said, "I
don’t speak
to you," so
I’d like to
know from your
side, from
DPKO’s
[Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations]
side, are they
aware of
Ivorian
security
forces being
killed and are
they part of
this
ceremony and
of the deep
concern being
expressed by
the United
Nations?
Spokesperson:
As I
understand it,
we are aware
of one member
of the
security
forces of
Côte
d'Ivoire also
losing his
life in that
attack. And
it’s not
something that
would go
without
notice, of
course; I am
sure that that
has been
mentioned in
Côte
d'Ivoire
today. The
focus,
I speak here
for the United
Nations
Peacekeeping
Operations,
and what
has been going
on the ground
today in
Abidjan was a
memorial
ceremony
for those
fallen
peacekeepers.
And I would
simply place
it in that
context,
Matthew.
OK.
On Mali, first
a
press
statement then
a resolution
drafted by
colonial power
France is
expected.
Watch this
site.
, 
