On
Cote d'Ivoire, Bamba at UN Predicts Gbagbo Goes to ICC, Rice on Liberia
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 13 -- After the UN Security Council met about Cote
d'Ivoire on Friday, Alassane Ouattara's Permanent Representative
Yousoufou Bamba strutted out of the Council looking happier than in
months.
He
told Inner City
Press to expect International Criminal Court prosecution of former
president Laurent Gbagbo. “His crimes call within the competency of
the ICC,” Bamba said.
Inner
City Press
asked Bamba about the killing of another anti-Gbagbo commander (but
Guillaume Soro rival) IB Coulibaly. Bamba was dismissive. “The
Gbagbo people try to use that,” he said.
Earlier,
inside the
Council, US Ambassador Susan Rice came to emphasize that the
peacekeepers lent from the UN Mission in Liberia to Cote d'Ivoire
should be returned.
Sources
describe to Inner City Press a negotiation concerning whether the
helicopters shifted from Liberia to Cote d'Ivoire and now more needed
there, or for th elections in Liberia.
As Rice then
left the Council, before the
discussion of Syria, Yemen and Libya, Inner City Press asked her, so
UNMIL is important?
Yes,
she nodded,
adding that “generosity” is not forever.
Ban and Bamba, Coulibaly no longer shown
Inner
City Press
asked Bamba about returning the UN peacekeepers from Abidjan to
Liberia. “We still need them,” he said, speaking of Gbagbo
supports still committing “atrocities” while seeking to flee the
country. But what about what the now governmental forces did in
Douekoue? Watch this site.
* * *
Leaked
French
Documents
Show
Cote
d'Ivoire
Strategy
at
UN of France on Liberia, Mali
& Even San Francisco
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
April
8,
updated
--
With
Cote
d'Ivoire's defiant Laurent Gbagbo
surrounded after French and UN military action in Abidjan's Cocody
neighborhood, internal French government documents obtained by Inner
City Press and published exclusively today paint a picture of
France's communications with the UN Mission UNOCI, its analysis of
the politics of Guillaume Soro, Liberia and the Malian press, even
its recycling of a French diplomat arrested in New York as France's
new general consul in San Francisco.
In
the first
document, France's Force Licorne (Unicorn) wrote to the Special
Representative of the Secretary General about Gbagbo's import of
heavy weapons. Click here to view. More recently, France is accused
of violating the arms embargo by providing and facilitating weapons
to the forces of Alassane Ouattara.
The
second
document
is
an
internal
French
cable
detailing
the Financial
Organization of the Rebellion, down to a “racket” of shaking down
money for taxi licenses.
In
the third
document, France bemoans the failure of a visit of three African
heads of state to Cote d'Ivoire, including Nigeria's Obasanjo and
South Africa's Thabo Mbeki now active in Sudan, complaining that this
situation can be prolonged until the international community decided
to “impose a solution.”
In
the fourth
document, France analyzed and critiques South African policy toward
Cote d'Ivoire and Gbagbo.
In
the fifth
document, France analyzes Liberia's foreign policy as pro-American.
More recently, a purported interview of a Ouattara commander
describing coordinating with a French citizen working with the UN
Mission in Liberia has surfaced.
In
the sixth
document, France analyzes the “discrete attitude” of the Malian
press.
In
the largest set
of documents published today -- there are more -- France details its
work in the UN Security Council on resolutions concerning the UN
mission UNOCI.
One
of the French
diplomats involved was Romain Serman, who was later arrested by the
New York Police Department. See arrest sheet and
signed statement,
here. Then French Ambassador de la Sabliere, to “avoid a scandal,”
sent Serman back to Paris.
But
in 2010 he was
re-assigned to the US, as general consul in San Francisco. And so it
goes.
Update at 1pm, April
8: at the UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky to describe how UNOCI has
allowed Licorne to lobby it and attend its meetings, and if other
countries have been allowed.
Nesirky said
he would not comment on leaked documents, and also directed Inner City
Press to ask the (French) chief of the UN Department of Peacekeeping
Operations, Alain Le Roy. Watch this site.
, 
