On
M23, As UN
Defers to
Uganda Talks,
France's Araud
Scoffs at
Sealing Border
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 10 --
The UN almost
always urges
parties to
stop
fighting and
negotiate --
"it's call
diplomacy" or
mediation, as
one diplomat
put it to
Inner City
Press. But on
August
9 Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman to
apply this to
Eastern Congo:
Inner
City Press:
the Government
of the
Democratic
Republic of
Congo has
said that it
will not
negotiate with
the so-called
M23 mutineers,
people who
were in the
Army. They
claim that the
agreement to
reintegrate
them signed on
23 March 2009,
was broken.
Given its role
with MONUSCO
and otherwise,
does the UN
think that the
Government
should
negotiate with
these people
or should not
negotiate, and
they
simply
disappear?
Spokesperson:
Thank you. I
would put this
in a broader
framework of
the meeting
that took
place in
Kampala and
what’s going
to transpire
after
that. Those
discussions
continue, but
in the Great
Lakes setting.
And I would
put it in that
framework for
now.
But
those talked
ended without
any agreement,
and with
Congolese
president
Kabila still
saying he will
not negotiate
with the M23.
On
Friday August
10, Inner City
Press asked
this month's
Security
Council
president,
French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud,
what the
Council
or France
think of the
Uganda talks
(non) result.
Araud
said, "as
president of
the Security
Council" that
the "proposal
of a neutral
force has
raised a lot
of skepticism
in the
Council." He
said it would
be too slow
and
expensive, and
that using the
UN's MONUSCO
mission would
take them
away from
protecting
civilians. (A
job they've
fallen down
on,
repeatedly,
now in South
Kivu at the
Hotel Uvira.)
The
French
Ambassador
continued, as
if in code,
that the
problem
requires
a political
solution, not
the sealing of
the border. He
said the M23
should stop
its attacks
and that
"external"
forces should
reach an
agreement.
But
why would M23
simply stop?
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
The
UN has still
not
supplemented its vague
answer to
Inner City
Press on
how they
vetted DRC
Sanctions
"expert" Steve
Hege,
or if they
read his
articles on
the FDLR.
Watch this
site.
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