Amid
UN
Budget Cuts,
500 Blue
Helmeted
Moroccans to
CAR For Only
50 Staff?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 21 --
The idea of UN
guards in
Libya, Somalia
and
the Central
African
Republic is a
new one, and
not off to the
best
start.
There is
rejection in
Libya and
waste, some
say, in
Central
African
Republic even
amid moves to
slash
the UN budget
including
layoffs,
in the UN's
5th Committee.
In
Libya, despite
Security
Council
approval
on which Inner
City Press
first reported,
the plan
for over 230
guards has
been rejected.
The
UN insists
it was
misunderstood.
Now
Inner City
Press is
exclusively
informed of a
meeting and
debate
concerning
whether the
guards in CAR
and those in
Somalia should
or
should not be
"blue
helmets." The
answer, after
a
contentious
meeting, is No
in Somalia,
Yes in the
CAR.
In
Central
African
Republic, the
guards will be
from Morocco:
500 of
them. In the
meeting, Inner
City Press is
informed, when
it was said
that there are
only 50 UN
staff to
protect, a
Permanent Five
member's
Permanent
Representative
asked for
confirmation:
500 guards for
50
staff? That
is, ten guards
for each staff
member?
And,
Inner City
Press is told,
the answer
from UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous'
deputy Edmond
Mulet was
"yes."
This
in a time when
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
big-donor
nations
like the
United States
and, loudly,
France are
urging for the
UN
budget
to be cut
or in
the case of
France to get
more of it
-- ten
guards for
each staff
member.
"Madness," as
one source
told
Inner City
Press. Watch
this site.
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