On
Mali, Some See
DPA for US
and DPKO for
France, Rights
in Resolution?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 5 --
After the West
African group
ECOWAS
"deplored"
the
recommendations
by UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
that a mission
to Mali be
paid for by
voluntary
contribution
and not
through the UN
budget,
representatives
of ECOWAS, the
African Union
and Mali
addressed the
Security
Council on
Wednesday.
Many
close
observers
noted that
Mali's
representative
Traore
Rokiatou
Guikine seemed
to say that
the Tauregs
cannot be
negotiated
with, and
asked Inner
City Press,
what sort of
message does
this send?
Answer: not
one likely to
avoid
military
action.
After
the open
meeting, Inner
City Press
asked each of
them, and
France's
Ambassador
Gerard Araud,
about the
mission that
has been named
AFISMA.
The African
Union
representative
Tete Antonio
said that
voluntary
contributions
had not worked
for the AU
missions in
Darfur,
AMIS, and
AMISOM in
Somalia, at
first.
Inner
City Press
asked Antonio
if the
resistance of
the US to fast
military
action in
Mali, made
public
recently by
General Carter
Ham, wasn't
similar to
France
dismissing the
position of
the regional
group ICGLR
that the M23
mutineers
should be
negotiated
with -- both
representing
a Permanent
Five member
dissing an
African
regional
grouping.
Antonio
said,
let's keep
this to Mali,
and keep an
open mind.
Other
well placed UN
sources told
Inner City
Press this was
a case of the
UN
Department of
Political
Affairs, led
by American
Jeffrey
Feltman,
issuing
recommendations
similar to the
US position,
while the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations,
led by its
fourth
Frenchman in
a row Herve
Ladsous,
pushes the
French line.
There are many
who say
that: but
Ladsous find
such questions
so insulting,
he
refuses to
take any more
Press
questions
in
the UN.
Not
so French
Ambassador
Araud. He took
Inner City
Press'
question,
after
the closed
door
consultations,
about how the
UN's
Huamn Rights
Due
Diligence
Policy
would apply to
this AFISMA
mission with
the Malian
military.
Training, he
said, to be
conducted by
ECOWAS and the
European
Union.
Inner
City Press
asked Araud,
Is France
comfortable
with Mali's
post-coup
military? He
said it is not
a question of
being
comfortable.
He also
took a Press
question about
how the UN's
Human Rights
Due Diligence
Policy is
being, or should
be,
implemented in
the Democratic
Republic
of the Congo.
Watch this
site.
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