At
UN,
Ouattara Diplomat Bamba to Meet with Ocampo of ICC, Museveni and Zuma
Side With Gbagbo
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 24 -- While Uganda's Yoweri Museveni
has joined
South Africa's Jacob Zuma in breaking with the UN's and others'
declaring Alassane Ouattara the winner of the election in Cote
d'Ivoire, Ouattara's
UN Ambassador Yousoufou Bamba has told Inner
City Press he will meet with International Criminal Court prosecutor
Luis Moreno Ocampo on January 25.
“Be ready for
some news,” Bamba told Inner City Press. The goal seems to be to
get Ocampo to begin speaking of Gbagbo as he does of Sudan's Omar
al-Bashir.
Museveni,
of
course, invoked the ICC against the rebel group which began in
Uganda, the Lord's Resistance Army. Now Museveni in essence backs
Laurent Gbagbo, an emerging target of the ICC.
Uganda's
Ambassador
to the UN Ruhakana Rugunda, as he left the Security
Council in December, told Inner City Press that Gbagbo should be
lured from power with the prospect of a “safe” departure. To some
this appeared to mean an assurance of no ICC prosecution. Now
Museveni has said that the entire vote should be investigated.
UN's Ban and Bamba, UN photo, ICP photo and video via here
Has
Uganda's
position changed, or had Ambassador Rugunda simply not gotten the
memo? And what will the UN, EU and US do, as African support for
their position become less and less unanimous?
This
will be
discussed at the upcoming AU summit in Addis Ababa. Nicolas Sarkozy
of France should be there -- which, some say, will help rather than
hurt Gbagbo's chances to stay in power. Watch this site.
* * *
At
UN,
Deal
with Russia on Cote d'Ivoire Resolution Has Bamba Staying Silent,
Speaks Afterwards to Inner City Press
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee, Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
January
19 -- As the UN Security
Council on Wednesday
morning belatedly adopted a resolution increasing UN forces and focus
in Cote d'Ivoire, the new Alassane Ouattara appointed Ambassador
Yousoufou Bamba sat at the Council table but did not speak.
On
Tuesday, when
the UN troops four week period ran out and the resolution was
supposed to be adopted, arguments in the Council's closed door
consultations focused on the procedural question of whether
Ouattara's Ambassador Bamba could sit at the Council's horseshoe
table, and if he could speak.
Russia
opposed
this,
as well as demanding that the phrase “without prejudice to
the freedom of expression” be added before a call to halt
Radiodiffusion Television Ivoirienne (RFI) from “incit[ing] hatred
and violence, including against the UN and particularly UNOCI.”
After
Bamba
sat in
the meeting for the vote approving the amended resolution but did not
speak, Inner City Press sent Bamba a text message asking for his
reasons. He emerged from the Council and told Inner City Press, “I
voluntarily chose not to speak, with the support of the African
members, not to create a breach in the unity of the Council.”
Later
it
was
explained to Inner City Press by the Permanent Representative of an
African country not currently on the Council that it was mostly South
Africa which implored Bamba not to speak, in order they said that the
world not see that the Council is not, in fact, united.
UN's Ban and Bamba at swear-in, (c) MRLee
Inner
City
Press
asked Bamba about Russia's demand that “without prejudice to the
freedom of expression” be added to the resolution. Bamba said
that's “not to silence their side” -- seeming to say that the
Gbagbo “side” is Russia's side.
After
a
pause,
Bamba came back to tell Inner City Press that “on behalf of the
Ouattara administration,” he appreciates the increase in UNOCI's
“defensive force” - he pointed at the phrase about “three armed
helicopters with crews from UNMIL” as he said this -- and the RTI
paragraph and “especially,” he said “the lifting of the
blockage of the Golf Hotel without delay.” We'll see.
, 
