UNITED
NATIONS, June
18 -- The UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
under Herve
Ladsous has
waved a
previous
restriction on
using troops
from post-coup
Fiji.
DPKO
now says it is
entirely up to
Fiji to vet
its own troops
for
"violations of
international
human rights
law
or
international
humanitarian
law."
Clearly,
a
coup
government
would not deem
itself to be
violating such
laws. So
Ladsous has
undermined
this previous
UN
Peacekeeping
safeguard.
He
made a similar
mockery of the
stated
conditionality
policy, by
continuing
to support
units of the
Congolese Army
implicated in
135
rapes in
Minova. On
July 1, he is
set
to "blue
helmet"
soldiers from
an army on the
UN's list of
child soldier
recruiters.
This is
DPKO under
Herve Ladsous.
After
the coup in
Fiji, the UN
said it would
not use Fijian
peacekeepers,
post-coup.
Later when
Inner City
Press inquired
how Fijians
were
reportedly
traveling to
the UNAMI
mission in
Iraq, UN
Associate
Spokesperson
Farhan Haq
told Inner
City Press
that was
not a new
deployment,
only a
"rotation."
Now
the UN has
recruited
peacekeepers
from Fiji,
still under
Josaia
Bainimarama,
for its
decaying
mission in
Golan, UNDOF.
On June 17
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
Deputy
Spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey if Ban
had changed
the policy, or
determined
(contrary to,
for example,
the
Commonwealth)
that
democracy has
been restored
in Fiji.
Del
Buey replied
that he
thought the
policy was
only that
Fijian
peacekeepers
would be
vetted. (As
noted, that
was not the
policy.)
Inner
City Press
asked if these
170 Fijian
have been
vetted. Del
Buey said
to "ask DPKO"
- the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations.
Today,
just before
the 3 pm
Security
Council
meeting on the
Golan mission
UNDOF that the
Fijians are
joining, the
following came
in:
Subject:
Your
question on
Fijians in
UNDOF
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not
Reply [at]
un.org
Date: Tue, Jun
18, 2013 at
2:36 PM
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
Regarding
your
question on
Fiji's
deployment to
the UN
Disengagement
Observer
Force, we have
the following
to say:
Fiji's
deployment to
UNDOF will be
implemented in
line with the
Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations's
human rights
policy. It is
the
responsibility
of the
Government of
the Republic
of Fiji, as
with all
troop
contributing
countries, to
ensure that
its personnel
have not
been convicted
of, are
currently
under
investigation
for, or being
prosecuted for
any criminal
offence,
including
violations of
international
human rights
law or
international
humanitarian
law.
Fiji
will vet
itself; the
restriction on
new
deployments of
troops from
post-coup Fiji
has been
removed under
Ladsous. This
is a DPKO in
decay. Watch
this site.
, 
