Ladsous
Won't Say If
UN to Defend
Bukavu, Was
Rejected to
Head DPKO
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 21 --
After UN
Peacekeeping did nothing
as the M23
mutineers it
calls so
brutal took
over first
Goma, then
Sake, and
prospectively
Bukavu, it
seems certain
that Herve
Ladsous
the chief
of the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
would be asked
and have
to answer,
"Would the UN
defend
Bukavu?"
But
when Ladsous
came out to
the Security
Council
stakeout early
Wednesday
afternoon, he
refused to
answer the
question.
His spokesman
Kieran Dwyer,
who has previously
tried at
Ladsous'
behest to
order
censorship,
this time
called
repeatedly for
the UN
microphone to
be
given to a
French
reporter. Video
here, at
Minute 11:50.
No
one else asked
Ladsous the
question,
which is most
directly his
responsibility
because of
protests and
threats
against the
people
under his
control who
are in Bukavu,
as in Bunia
and Kisangani.
So
Inner City
Press asked
the question,
and each time
Ladsous looked
the
other way. Video
here, at
Minute 10:13,
13:25 and
especially
11:50.
Afterward
several
Security
Council
diplomats
shook that
heads, one
calling
Ladsous'
performance
"unacceptable."
But this is
the UN --
France OWNS UN
Peacekeeping,
having
appointed the
last four
chiefs in
a row.
The
problem this
time is that
the selected
and vetted
Frenchman Jerome
Bonnafront
was, due to
bragging in
India, nixed
at the last
moment, as
exclusively
reported by
Inner City
Press. And so
Ladsous was
put in without
review, and
has tried to
erase this
history ever
since.
But
there's more.
Inner
City Press has
been told by a
well placed
source in the
Secretariat
at the time
that Herve
Ladsous was
previously
REJECTED for
the post
that Ban
Ki-moon ended
up letting him
have, since it
was "France's
decision."
All
of this could
have been
addressed and
answered early
in Ladsous'
tenure. But
Ladsous
immediately refused
to answer any
questions,
including
about his time
as France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
during the
Rwanda
genocide in
1994,
supporting the
genocidaire
government.
Now,
emboldened by
other
anti-press
freedom moves
in the UN,
Ladsous has
adopted a
policy of not
taking
questions from
questioners
whose
coverage he
doesn't like.
As one wag put
it, it's a
small taste of
North Korea in
Ban Ki-moon's
UN. How is it
acceptable?
Watch this
site.
, 
