UN In
Denial in Cote
d'Ivoire,
Koenders
Washes Hands,
Muses on
Cocoa &
Women
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 26 --
Since the UN
Mission in
Cote d'Ivoire
stood
by as
internally
displaced
people were
killed in the
Nahibly IDP
camp
in July, it
has twice
promised to
investigate
its inaction.
After
Inner City
Press asked in
July, and the
UN promised
that witnesses
who say UN
Peacekeepers
form the ONUCI
mission
actively
pushed IDPs
off their UN
trucks and to
their deaths,
top UN envoy Bert
Koenders
made a press
statement in
Abidjan
denying any UN
fault.
Then
in October
after more
bodies were
found in wells
around
Nahibly, and
Inner City
Press asked
again, the UN
said another
investigation
was
underway.
And
so on December
24 Inner City
Press asked
the UN a
handful of
questions
including
about inaction
by the UN on
126 rapes by
the
Congolese army
in Minova and
for
"information
on the killing
of
the four
peacekeepers
in Darfur, and
the
long-delayed
update on the
shooting of
the Rwandan UN
police officer
in Haiti.
Also, the
now-2
reports from
Cote d'Ivoire
about UN
action and
inaction in
Nahibly
IDP camp
killings."
The
UN responded,
"with respect
to your
questions on
Haiti, the DRC
and Darfur, we
have nothing
to add at the
present time.
With respect
to you
questions on
Cote d'Ivoire,
we attach two
articles that
are
currently
appearing in
the latest
edition of
Fraternite
Matin, which
covers the
issue you
raised."
Fraternite
Matin
is controlled
by the
Ouattara
government of
Cote d'Ivoire,
and the
two "articles"
are in fact
the text,
without any
questions,
of a long and
vague speech
by Koenders.
As
to Nahibly and
the UN's role,
Koenders
claims the UN
had no
protection of
civilians
mandate, and
could not fire
on a crowd --
even one that
was beating
people to
death. Does
this sound
like
Rwanda?
Despite
for
the second
time jumping
the gun and
exonerating
the UN and
himself,
Koenders
claims that an
investigation
is still
ongoing. Does
this sound
like Haiti,
and the UN
bringing
cholera there?
Koenders
gently,
ever so
gently, calls
on "the
authorities"
to
complete their
own
investigation.
Hey: practice
what you
preach.
In
the rest of
the speech,
along with
much praise of
the
government,
Koenders waxes
on about
"young women
in the market,
full of
life" and
"cocoa beans."
Some call him
Dutch
Chocolate.
Where will he
go after
Abidjan --
Haiti? Unless
the UN has
been thrown
out.
Koenders
is
one of the UN
envoys who
adopted
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
chief Herve
Ladsous'
strikingly
anti-Press
position.
(Ladsous has
taken to
refusing
questions, and
directing his
spokesman
to seize
the UNTV
microphone to
avoid Press
questions
about the
Minova rapes,
click here for
video.)
Last
time Koenders
was at the
Security
Council, he
declined to
hold a UN
Televised
stakeout,
instead
speechifying
off-camera in
front of the
Council. When
Inner City
Press,
standing
behind other
journalists
who
were working
stories other
than Ivory
Coast asked
the Nahibly
question,
Koenders said
Sir, will you
please stand
back? Well,
no.
Watch this
site.
, 
