Amid
Calls
for
Accountability
for Sending
Pilots to
Death in S.
Sudan, UN
Stonewalls
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
26 -- More
than six
months ago in
South
Sudan, the
UN
Mission sent
four Russian
helicopter
pilots out,
who were shot
down
and killed by
the SPLA.
On
July 25,
Russian
Ambassador to
the UN Vitaly
Churkin told
reporters
Russia
demands
punishment for
the military
who opened
fire on the
helicopter, as
well as for
the UN
staffers "who
had
made the
decision to
send the
helicopter to
a dangerous
zone."
He said there
are
difficulties
with the
latter, as
most of those
who
were
responsible
for
dispatching
the copter
“don’t work
with the
mission any
longer." Ah,
mobility.
On
July
25, Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
Spokesperson's
Office
slipped in a
mere three
minute noon
briefing just
as Rwanda's
foreign
minister lit
into UN
Peacekeeping
for other
failings, in a
speech in
the Security
Council.
Inner City
Press ran
from the
Council to the
briefing room
at 12:03 but
was told "it's
over."
So
on
July 26 Inner
City Press
left a Syria
related
stakeout in
the
North Lawn and
ran to ask for
response to
Churkin's
pointed
comments
from the day
previous,
including that
the UN had
already shown
his
mission their
report.
But
when
Inner City
Press, also on
behalf of the
Free UN
Coalition,
asked
the helicopter
question, all
Ban Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo
Del Buey said
was, we've
seen the media
reports, we'll
have to ask
DPKO.
Why
hadn't
they ALREADY
asked DPKO?
Why didn't
DPKO,
presumably
seeing
what was said,
provide some
if-asked for
the
Spokesperson's
Office? Or
is the goal,
as so often
with DPKO
under Herve
Ladsous,
simply not to
answer the
question,
while promises
of an answer
are always
offered?
After
six
pm on Friday,
six hours
after the
briefing, no
answer had
been
provided.
Ladsous'
failing are
not only in
the Congo, in
Haiti,
Darfur
and the Golan
Heights. For
South Sudan
alone, it's
time for
#LADSOUS2013.
Watch this
site.
, 
