On
Syria, Araud
Disses
Churkin's
"Conspiracy
Theory,"
Ladsous Floats
Away
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 2 --
When the Syria
meeting of the
UN Security
Council broke
up late
Thursday
afternoon, it
was Russian
Permanent
Representative
Vitaly Churkin
who made it
first to the
UN TV
microphone.
He said that
inside the
meeting, the
Western
countries
had not
explained to
his
satisfaction
why they want
the UN
observer
mission to end
on August 19.
During
the meeting,
another
Security
Council member
told Inner
City Press it
would be a
matter of
"saving face,"
after the
(mostly) UK
drafted July
20 resolution
used the term
"final"
extension.
Inner
City Press
asked Churkin
if it would be
possible to
maintain after
August 19 a UN
presence in
Syria, for
example with
personnel of
the
UN Department
of Safety and
Security,
without
passing a new
resolution.
Churkin said
no, then said
Russia would
be willing to
"re-name" the
mission.
French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud,
August's
Council
president,
began by
chiding
Churkin for
speaking
first. Inner
City Press
asked
him about the
EU's
Kristalina
Georgieva's
statement that
humanitarian
aid delivery
in Syria is
helped by the
UNSMIS
mission, even
now.
This,
Araud did not
answer.
Rather, he
focused with
rhetorical
flourish on
Inner City
Press' second
question,
about
Churkin's
surprise that
Kofi
Annan's deputy
Jean Marie
Guehenno had
been called by
to Paris for a
job with the
French
government.
Araud
said this was
a "conspiracy
theory," and
that Churkin
had
spend too long
on the Middle
East. He
emphasized
that it was
the new,
Francois
Hollande,
government
which offered
Guehenno the
post. But it
is only to
write a white
paper.
To some it
seems that if
the Annan
mission were
going better,
at least from
France's point
of view,
Guehenno might
not have been
"called home."
When
he was asked
how Russia
inside the
meeting had
argued for
UNSMIS to
stay in Syria,
Araud took
another
pot-shot,
saying, you
should ask
Churkin and
Ja'afari,
Syria's
Ambassador.
There were
smiles in
Araud's
entourage, and
in truth it
was more
entertaining
that most
Council
president's
stakeouts.
Will Churkin
or Ja'afari
fire back?
Next
up was
Guehenno's
successor,
with fellow
Frenchman
Alain Le Roy
in
the middle, as
head of UN
Peacekeeping:
Herve Ladsous.
His
spokeswoman --
lead spokesman
Kieran Dwyer
is said to be
away on
business
travel --
announced from
the beginning
Ladsous would
take
only two or
three
questions,
fewer than
Churkin or
Araud.
Even
so, Ladsous
barely
answered, and
as more
detailed
questions
began --
like why he
took half of
UNSMIS out
despite what
the EU's
Georgieva
said --
Ladsous
floated away
from the
microphone,
taking no
Press
questions (as he
vowed, not
liking or
being able to
handle
critical
coverage),
saying only
"We are
working."
Working on
what?
Dismantling
the UN Mission
and its
credibility?
The
comparison to
the UN's
flight from
Rwanda in the
face of the
Hutu
government's
genocide,
which Ladsous
as Deputy
Permanent
Representative
of France at
the UN in 1994
in essence
defended,
grows
more pointed
every day. At
some point the
questions will
have to be
answered.
Watch this
site.
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