After
UN Inaction As
M23 Took Goma,
France
Convenes UNSC
Experts
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 20 --
The fall of
Goma in
Eastern Congo
to the M23
mutineers with
no resistance
from the UN
Peacekeepers
has given rise
to questions
and a 10 am
experts-level
meeting at the
UN in New
York.
Why
did the
peacekeepers under
the command of
Herve Ladsous
simply stand
by, after all
the hoopla,
while the M23
took Goma?
What would be
different in
Bukavu, under
Ladsous?
Why
hasn't
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon spoken
with Congolese
president
Joseph Kabila,
despite having
spoken
directly with
Uganda's
President
Museveni and
Rwanda's
President Paul
Kagame?
On
November 19,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban's Deputy
Spokesman
Eduardo
Del Buey to
confirm that
the UN had
removed its
helicopters
from Goma
to Bukavu.
Del
Buey replied,
"I don't have
any
information on
that, I
believe
that the
Secretary
General said
MONUSCO
remains in
Goma and is
going
to stay in
Goma, if we
have anything
more to say
we'll let you
know."
But
Inner City
Press heard
nothing more
from Ban's
Office of the
Spokesperson,
much less from
UN
Peacekeeping,
whose boss
Herve
Ladsous openly
refuses to
answer any
Press
questions,
having
characterized
polite
questions
about his
role in the
Great Lakes
region,
including as
France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
to the
UN during the
Rwanda
genocide in
1994 as "insulting
innuendo."
Now
M23 has taken
over Goma.
What happens
with the draft
resolution
that
France
proposed on
November 19?
Inner City
Press asked
and a
self-described
UNSC diplomat
told Inner
City Press:
"On Goma,
experts are
meeting at 10,
and the idea
is to aim for
an accelerated
adoption given
speed of
events on
ground --
likely to be
late this
afternoon."
Cynics
or realists
might say the
resolution has
to now spin
the inaction
of
MONUSCO, and
the failure of
Ladsous, the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row to
head UN
Peacekeeping.
Who
will answer on
this?
Ladsous, in
another "pick
your
journalist"
press
conference or
stakeout? In a
reverse
citation to
real
military
figure
Stonewall
Jackson, some
now refer to
General
Stonewall
Ladsous. Or
will Roger
Meece, who as
Ban's DRC
envoy
arrived late
and
ill-informed
on the mass
rapes in
Walikale, do
another video
press
conference?
Watch this
site.
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