UN Won't
Confirm Denmark
on Syria Ship,
Dane Tweets
From S. Sudan,
Disappeared
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 8 --
After
Denmark's
defense
minister Nicolai
Wammen
said his
country is
contributing a
ship to help
remove
chemical
weapons from
Syria and
soldiers to
protect the
UN's envoy
there, Sigrid
Kaag, Inner
City Press
Friday asked
UN
spokesperson
Farhan Haq to
confirm the
offer is being
accepted. Video
here, from
Minute 7:01.
Haq
declined to
confirm,
saying that
nothing will
be decided
until a
November 15
meeting of the
Organization
for the
Prevention of
Chemical
Weapons in The
Hague.
It
all depends,
Haq said, on
the
OPCW's
acceptance of
the plan the
Syrian
government has
submitted.
But
Danish
officials'
statements
make it appear
it's a done
deal.
Development
minister
Christian
Friis Bach
told
Jyllands-Posten
that
the chemical
weapons will
not be brought
to Denmark for
destruction.
Defense
minister
Wammen
was quoted,
"We will go in
with a broad
approach from
the Danish
side and
support the
mission to
destroy the
weapons in
Syria. We have
not confirmed
the actual
number [of
soldiers]
yet." How does
he
know there
will be any,
before the
November 15
meeting,
according to
the statement
of UN
spokesperson
Farhan Haq?
Another
Dane
elsewhere in
the UN system
-- Mathilde
Kaalund-Jørgensen
of the
UN Mission in
South Sudan --
earlier this
week tweeted
this:
"#breaking
Lou Nuer youth
are mobilising
in big numbers
leaving #Akobo
town empty
heading
towards
Dengjok
#Southsudan"
Given
previous
bloodshed
between the
Lou Nuer and
Murle, and
UNMISS
inaction, this
gave rise to
concerns. So
much so that
the Mathilde
Kaalund
account
profile is now
gone from
Twitter.
This
came after
Akobo county
commissioner
Kuang Rambang
accused the UN
Peacekeeping
mission of
unfairness.
One way or
another, the
UN should
have
responded. But
instead, the
account simply
disappeared.
The
head of the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
Herve Ladsous
has adopted a
"farcical"
policy of
refusing to
answer Press
questions -- video here, UK
coverage here
-- so for now
we report
only this, the
"disappeared"
cautionary
tweet. With
Ladsous'
previous
history,
there are
concerns.
Watch this
site.
, 
