UN
Top
Peacekeeping
Post Given to
Herve
Ladsous,
"The Other
Frenchman,"
Despite or Due
to Bonnafont's
Bragging
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 2, updated
-- After
leaving the
UN's top
peacekeeping
job vacant for
four weeks,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon on
Friday as
expected named
a Frenchman to
the post, but
not the
Frenchman who
had been
bragging that
he had the
job, Jerome
Bonnafont.
Inner City
Press had
been the first
to name
Bonnafont,
and quoted
Indian
diplomats to
whom Bonnafont
bragged he had
the job.
Even
in front of
the Security
Council on Friday
morning,
the departing
spokesman
for the French
Mission to the
UN was unaware
of dark horse
candidate
Ladsous.
So were
others in the
French
political
world. On
August 20, Inner
City Press published
a card of
congratulation
directed to
Bonnafont at
the UN in New
York from
French Senator
Jean-Marie
Bockel.
But
at Friday's
noon briefing,
the name read
out was Herve
Ladsous. Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
new deputy
spokesman
Eduardo del
Buey to
describe the
selection
process, and
whether any of
the finalists
had not been
French. His
answer was
general, that
all UN
selections
like the one
through which
he got his job
are
transparent.
But
the top
peacekeeping
job, and most
Under
Secretary
General jobs,
are different.
Kofi Annan
"gave" DPKO to
France as part
of being
Secretary
General. From
Jean-Marie
Guehenno the
post went to
Alain Le Roy
and now to the
third
Frenchman in a
row.
Owning UN
Peacekeeping
is useful to
France: just
this week in
Paris, Nicolas
Sarkozy
bragged of his
country's
military
action in Cote
d'Ivoire as
well as Libya.
As reflected
in documents
exclusively
obtained and
published
by Inner City
Press, France
has no problem
using DPKO to
advance its
economic
interests, click here for
examples.
Who
is Herve
Ladsous? He
was French
ambassador to
Indonesia,
then a
spokesman and
diplomat in
Paris, then
Ambassador to
China.
He appears in
a 2006
Wikileaks
cable about
Sri Lanka,
telling the US
that he is
angling to get
appointed to
an
Ambassadorship
in India --
where
Bonnafont went
-- or China.
He does not
appear to have
any military
experience.
Tellingly, he
was France's "deputy
ambassador to
the United
Nations in New
York."
We'll have
more on this.
Ladsous,
Bonnafont and
selection
process not
shown
Here
is the
referenced
Wikileaks
cable from
2006:
"French
MFA
A/S equivalent
for Asia,
Herve Ladsous.
Ladsous said
that the GoF
had no
objections in
principle to
forming the
two working
groups,
though, he
added, France
would probably
not insert
itself into a
leadership
position. He
said that the
GoF would
support the
formation of
both working
groups and
noted that the
group charged
with examining
LTTE financing
would be of
particular
interest to
the GoF given
France's
significant
Tamil
population...
Ladsous
mentioned that
he was angling
to become the
next French
Ambassador to
China or
India."
And the
rest, as they
say, is
history. We'll
have more --
watch this
site.
, 
in