At
UN
on Mandela,
France Reads
Statement,
Rejected Him
on Burundi
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 5 --
As news of Nelson
Mandela's
death spread
on
Thursday, at
the UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon read a
statement
and took two
questions;
written
statements
were issued by
US
Ambassadors
Samantha Power
and Susan
Rice,
President of
the General
Assembly John
Ashe, even the
International
Monetary
Fund's
Christine
Lagarde.
It
was said that
UN Security
Council
president for
December
Gerard Araud
of France
would read the
Council's
statement at 7
pm. The UN
Television
camera was
re-assembled,
and a handful
of journalists
set
up shop. It
was pushed
back to 7:20,
then 7:30.
Araud and his
spokesman
arrived and
were heard
discussing
whether it
would be
French only,
or English
after French.
As
it turns out
France and
Mandela are
linked, as
luck would
have it
around
Africa's Great
Lakes Region.
Mandela after
wisely serving
a
single term as
South Africa's
president --
that is, not
clinging to
power -- in
2000 became
facilitator of
the Arusha
Process
seeking
peace in
Burundi.
In
that capacity
Mandela
briefed the
Security
Council,
including on
October
2, 2000,
giving rise to
this
press
statement
mentioning
Mandela as
well as the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo's
late president
Laurent
Kabila, or
Kabila pere.
Cut
to a December
28, 2004 cable
on Wikileaks,
recounting
that
"France
continues
to seek
solutions for
the crisis in
the Great
Lakes through
policies
designed to
support DRC
President
Kabila and the
transition
process and to
block Rwandan
interference
in Congolese
affairs.
France's
history in the
Rwandan
genocide
complicates
their ability
to
engage with
Rwanda,
leading the
GOF, whether
by inclination
or out of
necessity to
seek P3
cooperation....Perhaps
scarred by
their
experiences in
Rwanda, the
Government of
France was
unreceptive to
USG efforts in
2001/2 to
coordinate
contingency
planning for
potential mass
killings in
Burundi. The
French
response was
'if you
plan for it,
you ensure it
will occur.'
French
interest in
Burundi
briefly peaked
in October
2002,
following a
call from
Nelson Mandela
to Chirac
requesting
funding for
the deployment
of an army of
troops
from Uganda,
Rwanda,
Tanzania and
Kenya to
engage the
Burundi rebels
military, an
idea French
officials
characterized
as 'crazy.'
Mandela's
request came
to nothing."
Final
cut to Araud
on December 5,
2013 at 8 pm
in front of
the Security
Council,
reading a
statement
praising
Mandela's
struggle. He
started
leaving the
microphone as
soon as the
statement was
finished. Away
from the mic
he said he
never met
Mandela. What
about Burundi?
There's to be
a moment of
silence in,
and stakeout
in front of
the
General
Assembly on
December 6.
Watch this
site.
, 
