At
UN,
Top
Peacekeeper
Ladsous
Dismisses
Tunisia
Scandal, Haiti
&
Rwanda
Comments
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 13 --
Herve Ladsous
is the fourth
Frenchman in a
row
put atop the
UN Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations, a
Gallic
functionary
who was
earlier this
year chief
of staff to
disgraced
French foreign
minister
Michele
Aliot-Marie
who flew
during the
Arab Spring on
planes
provided by
allies of
Tunisian
dictator Ben
Ali.
Six
weeks ago,
Ladsous was
suddenly given
the UN job
upon the
nomination of
the French
government of
Nicolas
Sarkozy, after
the UN
rejected
Jerome
Bonnafont
who had
started
bragging to
diplomats in
India about
getting the
post.
Finally on
October 13
Ladsous
finally took
questions from
the press.
Inner
City Press
asked Ladsous
about l'affaire
Aliot-Marie
and Ben Ali,
as well as
about comments
he made in
2004 urging
elected
president
Jean-Bertrand
Aristide to
leave Haiti,
and in 1994
defending
France's
position on
Rwanda, which
was to support
the killings
led by Colonel
Theoneste
Bagosora.
Video here,
from Minute
21:52.
"I
will not go
into personal
aspects,"
Ladsous
replied,
saying dismissively
that Rwanda
was 15 years
ago -- of
course, it
remains a
major scandal
and trauma for
UN
Peacekeeping,
pulling out as
800,000
people where
killed -- and
that, as with
Haiti, he was
only speaking
for the French
government, so
he wouldn't
respond.
Structurally
similar,
in Sudan Ahmed
Haroun says
that
everything he
did was for
the government
in Khartoum.
That doesn't
mean that
Haroun isn't
held
responsible.
Why would it
be different
for Ladsous?
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
cut off the
follow up
question.
Video here,
at Minute
25:09.
If
even what
Ladsous did
earlier this
year,
presiding as
chief of staff
over
flights in
dictator's
allies'
planes, is
somehow
irrelevant, a
"personal
aspect," what
ARE
Ladsous'
qualifications
for the top UN
Peacekeeping
job, other
than
the
endorsement of
Nicolas
Sarkozy?
Ladsous
& Ban
Ki-moon: Ben
Ali, support
of Bagosora
not shown
France,
of course,
has its own
national
interest in
sites of UN
Peacekeeping,
for
example in
Cote d'Ivore,
which Ladsous
used as his
first example
of
UN
Peacekeeping
success.
Despite
knowing that
the question
was
coming,
Ladsous did
not deign to
respond to the
critique that
the job
shouldn't only
be given out
based on
nationality,
and now four
times
in a row to
the same
nationality.
This does not
bode well.
Footnotes:
Ladsous
said to show
him
"indulgence"
and not ask
about
details, at
least yet. And
so Inner City
Press directed
its question
about
UN
Peacekeepers'
inaction in
Southern
Kordofan to UN
spokesman
Nesirky,
who said he
was "just
making the
point" that
this should
have been
asked to
Ladsous
instead of
the background
and
qualification
questions.
Video here,
from Minute
37:57.
There
are other
question,
already:
Ladsous is
said to have
told the
Security
Council that
South
Sudan forces
are still in
Abyei, but
many think
this was
overplayed,
that the South
Sudan numbers
are small and
understandable.
And why
isn't DPKO
flying in the
Ethiopian
deployment to
Abyei? Ladsous
continued to
speak Thursday
about flooded
roads.
What
of the
discipline, if
any, of
Beninois
peacekeepers
repatriated
from Cote
d'Ivoire for
buying sex for
food from
under-aged
girls? How can
an
official who
refused to
address or
explain his
own actions
implement
a zero
tolerance
policy? We'll
stay on this -
watch this
site.
, 
