UNITED
NATIONS,
July 13, updated
– Seven UN
peacekeepers
were killed in
Darfur today,
shortly after
a visit by UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous
to Sudan,
including
meeting with
president Omar
al Bashir,
indicted by
the
International
Criminal Court
for genocide
in Darfur.
While
in Khartoum,
Ladsous
bragged about
“keeping the
body” of an
assailant in
Darfur and
also claimed,
despite his
meeting with
Bashir, that
he
cannot accept
impunity. Back
in New York,
he refused
repeated to
answer Press
questions
about his
statements in
Sudan.
Under
Ladsous, the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row atop UN
Peacekeeping,
there have
been at
least two
trends: the
missions
become more
closely
aligned with
governments
(and French
foreign
policy)
against
opposition
groups, as
in the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo and
Mali, and more
deaths and
injuries among
peacekeepers.
And,
Ladsous has
refused to
answer
critical
questions from
the Press,
choosing to
seek out small
groups
of friendly
reporters even
on the
kidnapping of
peacekeeper in
the
Golan Heights.
While
the seven
peacekeepers
were being
killed in
Darfur, Ladsous
was in Paris
with
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon for
the colonial
Bastille Day
military
parade
featuring
soldiers from
Cote d'Ivoire,
Burkina Faso
and Chad
(a country
currently on
the UN child
soldier
recruitment
list, but
accepted by
Ladsous for
the UN's
MINUSMA
mission in
Mali.
Would
Ladsous
take and
answer
questions
there? Or upon
his
post-parade
return to New
York?
Here's
what,
after
publication of
the above,
UNAMID put
out:
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