UN
Hangs
Laurent Gbagbo Gift to Ban, Not Stating Where They
“Protect” Him
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 19, updated -- A week after the UN Mission in Cote d'Ivoire
fired from helicopter gunships on forces of Laurent Gbagbo, a
painting Gbagbo gave to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2008 was
still proudly on display in front of the office of his Under
Secretary General for Management Angela Kane, one floor above the
offices of the media including Inner City Press at the UN.
The painting just outside UN Dep't of Management,
(c) ICP 4/18/11
It's
a dreamy
painting, accompanied by two plaques. The first, in French, says
“Offert par S.E.M. Laurent Gbagbo, President de la Republique de
Cote d'Ivoire.”
The
second, to the
side of the painting, says “Gift from Cote d'Ivoire to Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon, 23 April 2008.”
What
is the UN
supposed to do
with artwork gifted to it by a leader against whom the
UN subsequently deployed gunship helicopters?
Update: at 10:15 am
on April 19, Inner City Press told Ban's envoy to Cote d'Ivoire Choi
Young-jin about, among other things, the paintings. We'll see.
Inner
City Press
on April 18 asked Ban's acting Deputy Spokesman a series of questions
about Cote d'Ivoire, one of which despite saying he'd look into he
had not answered even by the next day, another he declined to answer
claiming it had been addressed by top UN Peacekeeper Alain Le Roy the
previous week, when Inner City Press was in
Washington, asking the
US State Department about the same now dead minister, Desire Tagro:
Inner
City
Press: there is this list of 107 Gbagbo supporters that were
taken to the Golf Hotel, where apparently there is some UNOCI [United
Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire] presence. There is a report
that Christophe [inaudible], the doctor of [Laurent] Gbagbo, has in
fact been killed. He is one of the people taken to the Golf Hotel. And
I wonder, what is UNOCI doing? One, can you either confirm or
not confirm that? And two, what is UNOCI doing? What’s the status
of those people in the Golf Hotel, and does UNOCI have any
protection? Are they saying anything about it? And what if people
are actually killed there?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson Haq: First of all, yes, UNOCI is providing
protection to a range of political stakeholders, including people in
the Golf Hotel. About this particular person, I’ll see whether
there is any further detail we have about his situation. I don’t
have any confirmation on that.
Inner
City
Press: How about the killing of the former minister [Desire]
Tagro, does UN… does UNOCI have any knowledge? It’s been
confirmed that he was killed and that he was killed in the course of
being apprehended. Does the UN have any knowledge of either
responsibility or…?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson: Yes, Alain Le Roy spoke about this at length
last week, Desire Tagro.
Inner
City
Press: Did he confirm that Gbagbo is in Korhogo?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson Haq: We haven’t specified where he is in
particular. He is in the north of the country.
Inner
City Press
said the name: Christophe Ble. No one in the UN asked for it to be
spelled out to them, but in the UN
transcript they say the name of a
person they are supposed to be protecting, who now is reportedly
dead, is “inaudible.” Watch this site.
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