Mali
Sideshow While
P5 Run the
Show,
Ministers on
Bissau &
Peacekeeping
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 10 --
On Mali
there were
a series of
ministerial
meetings in
the Security
Council Monday
afternoon,
with Morocco's
Saad Dine El
Otmani meeting
his
counterparts
from, among
others, Cote
d'Ivoire and
Togo.
Each
spoke to Inner
City Press
about Mali
outside the
Council. But
it was
in a sense a
sideshow: the
actual
Security
Council draft
resolution
on Mali is
still limited
to the
Permanent Five
members, with
France
and the US
continuing to
argue.
By
day's end a
non-Permanent
member told
Inner City
Press proudly
that
all of the
Council's 15
members would
finally meet
about the Mali
draft on
December 12,
with the goal
of finalizing
it and voting
by
December 21.
And
so, what of
these
ministerial
meetings? When
Minister
Charles Koffi
Diby went in,
he told Inner
City Press his
discussions
with Otmani
would be on
bilateral
issues between
the two
countries,
then about
Mali.
On
his way out,
Inner City
Press asked
Koffi Diby who
would pay for
the
AFISMA
mission. He
replied, also
in French,
that
"everyone"
will pay for
the mission,
"each will pay
his part."
Another
muttered about
"Les
Americains."
And then they
were done.
Togo's
Elliott Ohin
said the work
continues on
Mali, and also
on Guinea
Bissau, on
which the
Security
Council meets
on December
11. Then,
ousted envoy
Joseph
Mutaboba will
speak, while
the UN claims
that he
was not thrown
out.
Portugal's
foreign
minister is
coming in for
that and the
December 12
debate on
peacekeeping.
This will
feature
Ameerah Haq of
the Department
of Field
Support, who
has visited
Somalia, Abyei
and Darfur,
among other
places.
Also
present in his
way will be
reclusive
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous, who
refuses
to answer
basic Press
questions
about the UN's
Human Rights
Due
Diligence
Policy,
preferring to
summon hand
picked
journalists
into
the hall, click here to view. So it goes at
the UN.
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