UN
Budget
Session Has
Haiti, Kosovo
& S. Sudan
Open, Punts on
Silva SAG
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, June
9 -- As the UN
Budget
Committee
closes weeks
of work on
Peacekeeping,
spending for
at least three
Missions, in
South Sudan,
Kosovo and
Haiti, still
has to be
decided on
Monday,
sources tell
Inner City
Press.
The
sources list
among major
issues this
session the
transfer of
functions from
New York to
Brindisi,
Italy, which
was approved,
while
transfers to
Valencia,
Spain were
rejected, and
a new director
level (D2)
position in
the Department
of Field
Support.
The
top issue,
they say, was
Troop Costs,
for which the
supplemental
payment of
seven percent
begrudgingly
agreed last
year was
extended until
March 2013,
"when the
Special
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations"
results will
be discussed.
As
Inner City
Press on
May 23 quoted
a South Asian
representative
in attendance
at this SAG,
"France is the
worst, in
trying to cut
the pay.
We told them,
fine, then
don't keep
creating new
missions. Two
of my
country's
peacekeepers
died in Ivory
Coast,
carrying out
French foreign
policy."
It
subsequently
emerged and
the Press reported that
France's
representative
on the SAG
switched from
Jean-Marie
Guehenno,
now one of
Kofi Annan's
two deputies
on Syria, to Nicolas
de la Riviere,
who like
current Ban
DPKO
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous was a
former Deputy
Permanent
Representative
of France to
the UN,
serving under
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
(who,
incidentally,
has not been
seen in UN
Headquarters
for some time,
replaced by
Deputy now charge
d'affaires
Martin
Briens.)
Inner
City Press
began closely
covering the
SAG after
alleged war
criminal Sri
Lankan general
Shavendra
Silva was made
one of the
Senior
Advisers to
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
his
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous.
Attacks on
Inner City
Press now cite
not only UNCA
but also
Shavendra
Silva, here.
Ban
Ki-moon told
Inner City
Press that this is
entirely up to
member states;
meanwhile his
advisers
whisper that
Inner City
Press must be
funded by
remnants of
the Liberation
Tigers of
Tamil Eelam,
giving rise to
threatening
anonymous
telephone
calls.
Ladsous,
when
Inner City
Press asked
him about
accepting
Silva on the
SAG, as well
as about the
Mission in
Haiti
introducing
cholera to
that country,
refused to
answer, saying
"Well, Mister,
I will start
answering your
questions when
you stop
insulting me
and making
malicious and
insulting
insinuations."
The video,
at Minute
28:10, is online
here.
As
Ladsous said
this, he was
flanked by
Ban's
spokesman and
former Reuters
reporter
Martin Nesirky
and by the
acting head of
the Department
of Field
Support
Anthony
Banbury, who
did not answer
the question
Inner City
Press put to
him. Will he,
on the DFS
budget? Watch
this site.
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