UNITED
NATIONS, April
3 -- While
previous
French led UN
Security
Council
sessions on
Mali have been
surprisingly
smooth,
Wednesday's
was not.
Afterward,
UN
Department of
Political
Affair chief
Jeffrey
Feltman told
Inner
City Press,
“Well, that
was a lively
debate.”
Inner
City Press
asked
Ambassador
Susan Rice if
the US thought
the proposed
“parallel” or
French force
should be
under UN
control.
The
answer appears
to be, Non.
Ambassador
Rice said that
robust counter
terrorism work
in northern
Mali, at the
request of the
Malian
government,
should not be
part of the UN
stabilization
mission.
Rice
said the US
would have no
objection to
the Security
Council
offering
its “blessing”
to such work,
but that would
be it. She
said
proposals had
been made in
the
consultations
which raised a
lot of
questions.
Other
Ambassadors
agreed. Vitaly
Churkin said
while it was a
“professional”
discussion, it
will take
time.
Inner
City Press
asked Churkin
about the
parallel force
and if it
should be
under UN
control.
His
answer
included
noting that
despite the
claim
that the
“intervention
brigade” for
the Democratic
Republic of
Congo approved
last week was
an exception
and not a
precedent, it
is
already being
cited or used
for Mali.
So
what's next in
Mali:
UN drones like
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous
started
procuring for
West Africa --
read, Cote
d'Ivoire --
and
Central Africa
even before
getting any
Security
Council
approval?
When
Ladsous left
the Security
Council,
unlike Feltman
and his DFS
counterpart
Ameera Haq he
refused to
answer or
entertain any
questions at
all, even on
Mali.
After Ladsous
refused a Mali
question,
Inner City
Press asked
him on the
Democratic
Republic of
Congo, what
assurances he
claimed to
have received,
such that his
supposed April
1 deadline was
once again not
enforced?
This,
he did not
answer. Maybe
he was rushing
to the UN's
own radio
station, North
Korea style.
Watch this
site.
, 
