As
UNSC to Lake Chad, ICP Asks UN
of Nigeria's
Ebute's Letter, Cameroon,
Libya & Mali
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 2 – As the UN Security
Council took off on its Lake
Chad basin trip, first to
Cameroon via Paris, Nigeria's
former Senate President Ameh
Ebute wrote to the UN to urge
sanctions against Cameroon and
Chad. Inner City Press at the
March 2 UN noon briefing asked
the UN's holdover spokeman Stephane
Dujarric to comment on Ebute's
letter. Dujarric said he hadn't
seen it. Typical.
During the
Paris stopover, Council members
met with France's replacement
for Herve Ladsous atop UN
Peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre
Lacroix. Will Lacroix
addressed the disparities in
protection for European and African
peacekeepers serving
ostensibly together in the
UN's Mali mission?
And in
Cameroon, will the dispute
between the French and English
speaking communities, and
harsh prison conditions for
the latter, be noted by the
Council? Watch this site.
The
day after UK Ambassador
Matthew Rycroft said while the
UK supports Martin Kobler as
long as he is UN envoy in
Libya, if he's to be replaced
it should be quickly given
momentum, Inner City Press
asked Dujarric to describe the
UN process and timelines. No
details were provided. Again,
typical.
With the United Kingdom taking
over the Presidency of the UN
Security Council for March,
Ambassador Matthew Rycroft on
March 1 took 20 questions from
the media. Inner City Press
asked him why the meetings on
Burundi on March 9 and on
Yemen on March 29 are both
closed door. Video
here.
On
Burundi, Rycroft referred to
France as the penholder. On
Yemen -- on which the UK holds
the pen -- he said sometimes
there is a benefit to a closed
door discussion. Fine: but
what's the problem with an
open briefing, then closed
consultations? The Free
UN Coalition for Access
will continue to pursue this.
On Yemen
Inner City Press also asked if
the UK's findings as it looks
into more than 250 incidents
of the Saudi led coalition
will be shared with the
Security Council. It remains
unclear.
At the end,
Inner City Press asked Rycroft
if Nick Kay is still a
candidate to be UN Envoy to
Libya. Rycroft said the UK
supports current envoy Martin
Kobler but if he is to be
changed, it should be fast,
there is momentum.
Rycroft
said that civil society will
be invited to participate in
the month's wrap up session, a
first. Boris Johnson will
chair the March 23 meeting on
South Sudan, and something on
Somalia later that day. We'll
have more on this.
***
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