Italian
Prodi as Sahel
Envoy
Completes UN
"European
Sweep"
of Africa
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 9 --
The selection
of Italian
Romano Prodi
as the
UN's envoy to,
of all places,
Mali
culminates
what sources
in the
African Union
and the UN's
Department of
Political
Affairs
complain
to Inner City
Press is the
"Europeanization"
of the UN's
African
missions under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
The
top posts in
the UN
missions in
Liberia,
Sierra Leone
and Cote
d'Ivoire all
went to
Europeans, the
last to
Dutchman Bert
Koenders.
The Democratic
Republic of
Congo mission
MONUSCO is led
by the former
American
ambassador to
the country,
Roger Meece.
But
when the call
went up, first
by Morocco
then by
France, for a
envoy
to cover the
Sahel, many in
the UN's
Department of
Political
Affairs
assumed it
would at last
or at least be
an African.
They
were mistaken,
and
disappointed.
What
are Prodi's
qualifications?
Many were less
than impressed
with the
report on the
"modalities
for support to
African Union
peacekeeping
operations"
which he was
paid to
oversee; some
perhaps liked
it, or him.
A Security
Council Deputy
Permanent
Representative
on Tuesday,
asked
rhetorically
of Prodi's
qualifications
and if he
speaks Arabic,
continued to
say to Inner
City Press,
"good
question, he
speaks French,
right?"
Inner
City Press covered
Prodi's craven
UN job search
in 2008,
when he and
his entourage
met with none
other than
Laurent Gbagbo
on the terrace
of what was
then the
Delegate's
Lounge. Click
here for that.
Now,
ironically,
the UN to the
benefit of
Koender's
mission and
France's
project is
accusing
Gbagbo
supporters of
trying to
recruit groups
from Mali to
somehow come
destabilize
Cote d'Ivoire
-- as if
outlawing even
the
opposition's
newspapers
didn't do a
good enough
job of
destabilizing.
Why
did Ban
Ki-moon, as he
announced in
Paris, dole
out this job
to
Prodi? Why are
all of his
West Africa
Special
Representatives
from
Europe?
Some
go further and
continue to
ask, why did
he replace a
Deputy
Secretary
General from
Tanzania with
one from
Sweden -- and
then not make
up
for it, even
giving the
Special
Adviser on
Africa post to
the former
Egyptian
Ambassador
under Mubarak,
Maged
Abdelaziz?
This
last triggered
the anger of
many African
countries, not
least from
the South. But
Ban Ki-moon,
as one source
put it to
Inner City
Press,
does not seem
to take these
things
seriously.
Hence Prodi.
Watch this
site.
, 
