In
Cote
d'Ivoire, UN Silent on Copters & as Journalists Arrested
After UN Flight
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 3 -- As the Cote
d'Ivoire strategy of UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon and his ONUCI envoy Choi Young-jin is described
as unraveling, the ONUCI Mission and UN no longer answer basic
questions. Inner City Press has asked about events on January 28, in
which two journalists flown from Bouake to Abidjan on a UN plane were
immediately arrested.
UN deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq on February 3 said that “UNOCI has not comment
on this,” and argued that the arrest did not take place in flight,
but after landing. But if the UN can't even protect civilians or
journalists the moment they get off a UN plane, how can they comply
with their protection of civilians mandate?
Inner
City Press
had asked and is asking the UN to
“please
confirm or deny the UN's / ONUCI's awareness of the arrest below,
please explain how journalists could be arrested while flying on a UN
operated flight, and regarding the helicopters voted on by the
Security Council more than two weeks ago, please state between whom
the “discussions” in your response of yesterday are taking place,
and on what topic. Also, what were these helicopters doing with UNMIL
until until two weeks ago, and now? The reported
arrests:
“Sanogo
and Charly left Bouaké for Abidjan at about 3 p.m. on 28 January
aboard a flight operated by the United Nations peacekeeping mission
in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI). They were arrested on their arrival at
the
Abidjan air base by members of the Defence and Security Forces
(FDS).”
Also
on January
28, UN peacekeepers engaged with “young people” with “moderate
force.” Inner City Press since then has been asking the UN and its
Department of Peacekeeping Operations how young these people where
and what safeguards were in place -- without answer.
So
on February 3,
Inner City Press asked the UN's Special Representative on Children
and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy about the incident, and what
rules apply to UN peacekepers engaging with child soldiers or
activists.
Ms.
Coomaraswamy
said she would call for the use of “minimal” force -- to be
contrasts with the “moderate” force ONUCI says it used.
Mr. Choi & peacekeeper, copters, "young
people" and arrested journalists not shown
But
when Inner
City Press asked Ms. Coomaraswamy if her office had been notified by
ONUCI or DPKO about their engagement with “youth people,” she
said no.
Also,
with the
helcopters voted on by the Security Council more than two weeks ago
still no in Cote d'Ivoire, Inner City Press has asked, among other
things, “Regarding the helicopters for Cote d'Ivoire / ONUCI voted
on by the Security Council more than two weeks ago, please state
between whom the
“discussions” in your response of yesterday are
taking place, and on what topic.” Watch this site.
* * *
In
Cote
d'Ivoire, UN Copters Absent After 2 Weeks, UN Passes
Buck to Licorne
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 2 -- Two weeks after the UN Security
Council with
fanfare passed a resolution to send three attack helicopters and
troops to Cote d'Ivoire, the UN on Wednesday confirmed to Inner
City
Press that the helicopters had not yet arrived.
The
UN said
“discussions” were ongoing, without saying with thom these
discusses were. With defiant leader Laurent Gbagbo? With Alassane
Ouattara holed up in the Golf Hotel?
Others
have
questioned, if the UN Mission in Liberia could so easily give these
helicopters up, what was the US-supported Mission doing with them
anyway?
India's
Ambassador
Hardeep Singh Puri, on his way out of the Security Council on
Wednesday morning, told the Press that the issue of the helicopters
would be addressed with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when he returns
from his long trip to Switzerland, Addis Ababa and London.
Inner
City Press
asked Ban's deputy spokesman Farhan Haq to confirm the helicopters
had not arrived, and why, asking the UN in writing:
“Can
you state the status of getting the three helicopters (and
peacekeepers and other equipment) called for in the most recent Cote
d'Ivoire resolution of the Security Council into Abidjan? If they are
not in, what are the
obstacles? What is the time frame? What
assistance is the UN requesting?”
While
awaiting
response, Inner City Press asked this month's Security Council
president Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti to confirm that the helicopters
had not yet arrived, and how the Council follows up. She said she was
not aware but would look into it.
Later
on
Wednesday, the UN sent this answer:
From:
UN
Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Wed, Feb 2, 2011
at 1:24 PM
Subject: Your question on UNOCI
To: Inner City Press
Regarding
a
question on whether helicopters from UNMIL have been transferred to
UNOCI: Discussions are continuing on the issue of helicopters and
they have yet to arrive in Cote d'Ivoire.
Where
are these
discussions? With whom?
UN & Licorne, which UN
says "supports ONUCI" then won't answer
The
UN has
rebuffed other Cote d'Ivoire questions. Day after day since January
22, Inner City Press asked:
“In
Abidjan, much is being made of the stated discovery of assault
helicopter parts in a shipment supposedly of food for the Force
Licorne peacekeepers. This is a request that the UN and its mission
in Abidjan, which is sure to have seen the now day-old story, state
its understanding of what was in the shipment, respond to criticism”
After
ignoring the
question for more than a week, the UN finally dodged it, telling
Inner City Press “On Cote d'Ivoire, your question should be
addressed to Force Licorne.”
But
France's
Licorne is there under a UN mandate, and the scandal surrounding it
impacts the UN presence. Watch this site.
* * *
, 
