Amid
Cote
d'Ivoire Carnage UN, Diplomats & France Focus on
& Free Japan's Ambassador, Ban to DC
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 7 -- During heavy fighting in Abidjan on April 6 when
Inner City Press at the UN asked the Deputy Permanent Representative
of a Security Council member about military
action in Abidjan, his
first response was about the plight of single fellow diplomat,
Japan's Ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire, Yoshifumi Okamura.
Everything
else is
“philosophical,” the DPR chided Inner City Press, calling the
plight of the Japanese ambassador the most pressing problem.
Inner
City Press
asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky about
the UN not accessing the Japanese embassy, and that of the Vatican,
on the UN noon briefing on April 6. Nesirky had, or at least
provided, no answers at or after the briefing.
Hours
later,
after Alassane Ouattara's Permanent Representative Yousoufou Bamba
told Inner City Press that pro Ouattara forces had fired back at, but
had not been able to penetrate, the Japanese embassy in Abidjan's
Cocody neighborhood -- click here
for Inner City Press' exclusive story at the time -- French soldiers of
the Force Licorne shot it out
with Gbagbo defenders, freeing Okamura and staff.
Skeptics
say this
is how it has been throughout the battle of Abidjan: Ouattara's
forces are repelled by Gbagbo's, and then the French get involved,
claiming a UN mandate.
These
skeptics say this explains the UN and
French firing missiles from attack helicopters at Ggagbo encampments:
trying to soften them up to Ouattara's forces can push forward.
There is a
further twist in the hiearchy: what Ouattara's forces couldn't do, the
UN tried; what the UN couldn't do, like free Okamura,
the French did.
But
the focus of
diplomats, even from another country, on problems of their peers
means that even countries ostensibly questioning actions like
Licorne's and the UN's in Abidjan end up applauding it because
another country's diplomat is saved.
Others note
that the head of the UN Mission in Cote d'Ivoire is former South Korean
Ambassador to the UN Choi Young-jin.
UNIDO with
Japanese, Okamura
shakes with 2 Aug 2010 Cote d'Ivoire ministers
Some
ask, what was
Japan's Ambassador doing still living in Cocody when the “final
assault”on Gbagbo's compound there began? French expatriates
presumably with less information left other Abidjan neighborhoods to
move into military camps. Did no one tell Okamura?
This
isn't the way
to treat a once and future Security Council member, a close observer
mused. Or maybe it it. Watch this site.
Footnote
on
Cote d'Ivoire: with Ban Ki-moon visiting Washington DC today to
visit with “key lawmakers,” one wonders if this will include
Oklahoma
Senator Jim Inhofe, who for whatever reason just came out
with an analysis that Ouattara did not win the election.
Will Ban
reach out to Sen. Inhofe? Or will his office demand a meeting with Ban?
* * *
On
Cote
d'Ivoire,
Ouattara's Bamba Says Blasted Japanese Embassy to Get Snipers
on Roof,
Endgame?
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April
6 -- With the forces of Alassane Ouattara blasting
away at the residence of Laurent Gbagbo in Abidjan,
in
New York
Ouattara's Ambassador to the UN Yousoufou Bamba told Inner City Press
“it is a matter of hours.”
Earlier
on
Wednesday
a Security Council member's Deputy Permanent Representative
told Inner City Press that the worry wasn't the “philosophical”
issues of whether the UN should be shooting from attack helicopters
but rather the precarious situation of the Japanese embassy, and
Vatican representative, in Abidjan.
While
UN
spokesman
Martin Nesirky provided no information about either at the noon
briefing when Inner City Press asked or in the hours that followed,
Bamba
told Inner City Press that there were Gbagbo snipers on the roof of
the Japanese embassy, and that fire from the Ouattara side damaged
the embassy. Can you say, diplomatic incident?
Ban & Bamba, Japanese embassy & position on
Caritas not shown
French
Ambassador
Gerard
Araud disappeared from the ongoing Security Council debate on
Haiti on Wednesday afternoon, and UN sources said he was briefing
select journalists about Cote d'Ivoire. It is not clear what he said.
Another
Council
member's
Permanent Representative, on the other hand, was very clear:
the UN was going beyond the mandate given to it in Resolution 1975.
One wondered, when would the Council finally debate this
“philosophical” issue? Watch this site.
Footnote:
a
longtime
Gbagbo adviser at the UN in New York on April 5 told Inner
City Press that Gbagbo's former Permanent Representative had sold out
to the French, for money. He said that Gbagbo's residence had been
bugged. His harshest criticism was reserved for the UN, from which he
resigned in disgust. And do it goes.
* * *
, 
