UNSC
Silent on
Gaza, Vague on
Congo, As P5
Paralyze Their
Powerhouse
By
Matthew
Russell Lee -
Sunday
skeptic
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 18 --
The UN and its
Security
Council have
so
devolved that
they can only
act on
relatively
lower profile
conflicts, in
which at least
one Permanent
member has an
interest,
usually
colonial, and
no other
Permanent
member is so
interested as
to block.
This
was clear on
Saturday,
November 17.
Amid worldwide
news and
protests
about Gaza,
when the UN
Security
Council
scheduled an
emergency
weekend
meeting, many
assumed it
would be
about Gaza.
But
France, which
requested the
meeting,
clarified that
its subject
would
be the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo,
specifically
the advance of
the M23
mutineers on
North Kivu's
capital Goma.
Inner
City Press
went to cover
the emergency
meeting, which
resulted in a
press
statement
telling M23 to
stop, and
yet another
refusal
to
answer Press
questions
by Herve
Ladsous, the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row to head UN
Peacekeeping.
Then
it was was
said that the
Security
Council would
turn to Gaza,
under
"Any Other
Business." But
this meeting
broke up
quickly.
Later
Arab diplomats
came to the
Security
Council,
outside which
Inner City
Press was
writing its
story, but
could not get
in. One told
Inner
City Press to
follow, to
what turned
out to be a
desultory
meeting of
Arab
Ambassadors
with Security
Council
president for
November
Hardeep
Singh Puri.
Outside
India's
Mission to the
UN, Palestine's
Permanent
Observer Riyad
Mansour
told Inner
City Press
that dissatisfaction
had been
expressed
to Puri, but
no Council
meeting had
been
scheduled.
Developments
in
the Congo are
of course
troubling --
although the
UN's own
involvement
remains murky.
Why did the UN fly
Congolese
officials
to meet with
the Mai Mai
militia?
Did the UN
know about, or
even
participate
in, Congolese
army
operations
which M23 says
broke the
month-old
ceasefire?
Inner
City Press
asked the head
of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous,
"Who
broke the
ceasefire?"
But he refused
to answer.
Ladsous was
France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
at the UN
during the
Rwanda
genocide
in 1994, and
has refused to
answer Press
question about
how that
might relate
to his current
position(s) on
the Congo.
The
UN claims to
be protecting
civilians in
the Congo, but
fails more
often than
not. Last week
a UN
report showed
that the UN
failed while
tens of
thousands of
civilians were
killed in Sri
Lanka in 2009.
The
Security
Council never
even had a
formal meeting
about that;
the UN
Secretariat
concealed
casualty
figures and
worse.
A skeptic
or Sunday
cynic might
say, if this
UN failed so
badly on Sri
Lanka, what to
expect of it
on Gaza? But
even where the
UN does act in
some fashion,
as in the
Congo, its
head man won't
even answer
basic
questions.
These are
problems.
Watch this
site.
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