After
Ban Ki-moon
Dined With
Coup Leader
Rajoeline in
May, Now UN
Won't Confirm
Meeting
Madagascar PM
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 2 --
Despite
speeches about
democracy, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon dined
in May next to
Madagascar
coup
leader Andry
Rajoelina.
His
then deputy
spokesman
Farhan Haq
proceeded to
deny to
Inner City
Press that Ban
had "met
with" Rajoelina,
despite
photos of the
dinner.
Rajoelina
recently
sent his de
facto prime
minister
Camille Vital
to New York,
and it
was reported
in the
Malagasy press
that Vital met
with Ban
Ki-moon
"to ask for
the taking of
concrete
measures given
the
inefficiency
of SADC," the
Southern
African
Development
Community.
As
SADC
still views
Rajoelina as a
coup leader,
the
implication
was
that Vitale
was asking the
Ban
administration
to facilitate
his
appearance and
legitimization
at the
upcoming UN
General Debate
this
month.
On
August
29, Inner City
Press in
writing asked
Ban's lead and
deputy
spokesmen
"on
Madascagar,
has the
Secretariat
received any
request to
meet with de
facto prime
minister
Camille Vital
or foreign
Minister
Yvette Sylla
or any other
Malagasy
officials in
the run up to
the General
Debate?"
Neither
lead
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
-- away from
the office
since early
August
-- or Farhan
Haq, who gave
the UN's
briefing the
next day on
August
30 at which he
introduced his
successor as
deputy Eduardo
del Buey,
answered or
even
acknowledged
the question.
And
so on
September 2,
Inner City
Press asked
del Buey the
question asked
in
writing at the
beginning of
the week,
about any
meeting with de
facto
prime minister
Vital:
Deputy
Spokesperson
del Buey: I’ll
have to check
and get back
to you on
that.
It
would be easy
to confirm or
deny this
meeting, but
six hours
later, no
answer was
given.
Inner
City Press'
own reporting
finds that
Vitale has
confirmed that
he met with
Ban's
"Under
Secretary
General" --
presumably, UN
Department of
Political
Affairs chief
Lynn Pascoe --
about finding
a way to
appear
at this
month's
General
Assembly.
Ban and coup
leader, UN
claims Ban
never met him
Earlier in the
month onAugust
17, the UN
refused
to answer
Inner City
Press'
question about
DPA's
involvement in
Madagascar,
including
through
Joaquim
Chissano.
So
Ban Ki-moon's
UN, while
speechifying
about
democracy, is
meeting
secretly with
coup
leaders and
refusing to
answer
questions
about it.
Footnote:
a
Wikileaked
cable shows
that at the
time of the
2009 coup,
only
Ban's envoy
Tiebile Drame
"expressed a
strong
position in
support of
consequences,
and
accompanying
statements and
talking
points, for
the
extra-constitutional
solution now
in progress."
So Ban and his
UN and
"extra-constitutional
solution[s]"
--
while they
purport to be
the central
adviser to
Libya on
democracy.
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site.
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