At
UN, As Hague
Opposes Aid to
M23, Cameron
Asked Not of
Aid but
Mitchell
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 25
-- When UK
foreign
secretary
William Hague
spoke Tuesday
about the
importance of
the Sexual
Violence and
Conflict issue
to his
country, Inner
City Press
asked him
about the
Eastern
Democratic
Republic of
Congo, when
the UN
Peacekeeping
mission has
admitted
flying the
army to a
meeting
seeking
support in
the fight
against the
M23 from Mai
Mai militia,
themselves
reportedly
involved in
sexual
violence.
Hague
was fast with
an answer
about the M23
-- he said "it
is very
important that
any external
support to
rebel groups
in Eastern DRC
come to end,"
taken as a
code word for
Rwanda and
perhaps Uganda
-- but did not
address why a
UN mission
created and
supervised by
the
Security
Council, on
which the UK
has one of
five permanent
seats, is
simultaneously
claiming to
get trainings
to combat
sexual
violence,
while
facilitating
it with the
Mai Mai
militia.
Perhaps
naively,
some continue
to expect the
UK to use its
permanent seat
on
the Security
Council to
oversee at
least the
human rights
related
performance of
UN authorized
or supported
missions, for
example the
shelling of
Kismayo in
Somalia by the
Kenyan Navy,
working in
conjunction
with the UN
funded AMISOM
mission. But
the UK is
generally
loath to
criticize the
UN.
Later
on Tuesday UK
Prime Minister
David Cameron
took questions
in the same
acoustically
challenged
stakeout,
ostensibly on
Post-2015
Development.
The two UK
questions,
however,
concerned
former
international
aid minister
Andrew
Mitchell: how
can he not
fully
resign if the
police say he
calls them
plebs?
At
least the
Australia-centric
questions to
that country's
Julia Gillard
had a UN
angle, how
much was spent
on the run for
Security
Council
seat? (Gillard
answered Inner
City Press
that "twenty
four
million
dollars were
allocated,"
but would not
say much much
was
spent.)
Some
countries'
media identify
closely with
their
governments,
asking the
Press for
example, "how
did we do?"
BBC and ITV
from the UK
prepared and
asked a harder
question, but
didn't link it
to the UN.
Mitchell back
on June 28,
2010 took ten
minutes of
questions from
Inner City
Press; coming
full circle,
his answers
included
praise of
Rwanda. And so
it goes with
the UN - and
the UK. Watch
this site.
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