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UN's Ban "Dismayed" By Fiji Coup,
But Won't Forego Peacekeepers, Helen Clark on Spot
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City
Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, April 13
-- After the military
coup in Fiji in late 2006, then-Secretary General Kofi Annan said that
unless
democracy was soon restored, the UN would stop using Fijian
peacekeepers. More
than two years later, not only has democracy not been restored, now
according
even to the UN the Constitution has been abrogated, the judiciary
dismissed and
elections put off for another five years. Current Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
on April 10 expressed "deep dismay" at this, saying he "strongly
deplores these steps."
On
April
13, Inner City Press asked Mr. Ban's Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq is
Ban's
"deep dismay" means that finally Kofi Annan's threat, to stop using
and paying for peacekeepers from Fiji will be implement. Haq responded
that
future use of troops from Fiji will be on a "case by case basis."
Video here, from Minute 9:39.
But
after
the coup, the UN continued to rotate Fijian soldiers in and out of
Iraq, and
Haq admitted their numbers were not capped. Now even with Ban's stated
"deep dismay," nothing is said to have changed. How deep is that
dismay, again?
Bainimarama during 2006 coup, Ban's 2009 "deep
dismay" not shown
Late on November 28, 2006, after
Inner City Press asked at that day's noon briefing about it, the UN
issued a statement that "The Secretary-General also wishes to stress
that further prolongation of the crisis may damage Fiji's international
standing, which it has built carefully over the years, as an important
contributor to UN peacekeeping operations and more recently as a member
of the Peacebuilding Commission." If 29 months followed by
suspension of elections for five more years is not "prolongation," what
is?
Notably,
New Zealand's then-prime minister Helen Clark
as reported by Inner City Press in
2007 said,
"We've made it very clear to the UN that we do not believe they
should be using Fijian troops." Now Ms. Clark
is coming in as UN
Development Program Administrator, described as the third most
powerful
position in the UN system. What will she do on this? It will be among
her first
tests. Watch this site.
Click here
for a new YouTube video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian
deaths
in Sri Lanka.
Click here for Inner City
Press' March 27 UN debate
Click here for Inner City
Press March 12 UN (and AIG
bailout) debate
Click here for Inner City
Press' Feb 26 UN debate
Click
here
for Feb.
12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56
Click here for Inner City Press' Jan.
16, 2009 debate about Gaza
Click here for Inner City Press'
review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate
Click here for Inner
City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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