As
UN Council Shortens Congo Trip, Sanctions Committee Stymied, Doss
Impunity
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April 12 -- With renewed chaos in the Congo even the UN's
sanctions team has been crippled, by Chinese blocking of full
staff-up so that only one of the positions in Goma is filled.
This
sanctions committee detailed in the past involvement by UN-supported
government troops in illegal mining. Now its reporting powers are
curtailed, sources tell Inner City Press, and few complain out loud.
Complaints
about UN
envoy to the Congo Alan Doss, on the other hand, continue to grow.
Already the Congolese Ambassador to the UN has said the government
has opposed him continuing past June. The names bandied about, beyond
the French (Guehenno and Ripert), including former U.S. Ambassador to
Kinshasa William Garvelink. Il parle francais.
Regarding
the
shamelessly drawn out UN investigation of Alan Doss'
nepotism email,
in which he urged UNDP to show him "leeway" and give a job
to his daughter, the issue was raised again without answer at the
UN
noon briefing on April 12. How can it take ten months for the UN to
investigate a six line email? "Ask Alan Doss," was the
answer. Which would seem to mean he'll take the question, and have an
answer.
Meanwhile,
the
Security Council on April 12 decided to shorten its upcoming Africa
trip. It was to run Friday to Friday; now only to Tuesday. French
Ambassador Gerard Araud, who will lead the shortened trip, will
describe it to the Press on April 13.
UN's Doss in Pinga: end of an era
While the
Council's president Yukio Takasu told the Press on Monday that it was
the heated program of work -- heated by Iran, was the subtext -- that
required a shorter trip, the reality is that once Susan Rice dropped
out, as Inner City Press reported
on April 7, the trip lost much of its luster.
China's
Permanent
Representative Li Baodong had never planned to go. Someone --
Russia's Churkin? -- asked how many shots were necessary. Yellow
fever only! Yellow journalism?
* * *
In
Congo Crunch Time, US Rice and Others Cancel Visit, Iran Prioritized,
Post-Doss
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April 7 -- With new violence starting up and being
discovered throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the 15
countries on the UN Security Council arranged to travel to the DRC
starting April 13. One goal is to negotiate with Congolese President
Joseph Kabila, who has asked for the UN Peacekeeping mission MONUC to
begin to pack up and leave.
While
Security
Council members, particularly the United States, say that the issues
in the Congo -- systematic rape of women as a weapon of war,
exploitation of conflict minerals by rebels and rogue Congolese Army
units -- are of much concern to them, on April 7 it emerged that only
half of the Council member states are sending their Permanent
Representative or lead Ambassador on the trip.
US
Permanent
Representative Susan Rice, another Council Ambassador complained to
Inner City Press on Wednesday, has dropped her initial plan to travel
to the Congo, and will stay in New York for the beginnings of
negotiations on a resolution to impose more sanctions on Iran.
"She
wants
credit for cracking down on Iran," a source said,
analogizing her calculus to that of her predecessors Madeleine
Albright and Richard Holbrooke when they wanted promotions from US
Ambassador to Secretary of State.
Susan Rice, Secretary of State, UN
meeting on women, Congo discussed, visit not shown
The
UN's top envoy
to the Congo Alan Doss, already the subject of a nepotism
investigation by the UN for urging the UN Development Program to show
him "leeway" and give his daughter a job, is said to definitely
be out in June.
To
replace Doss
several French names are being circulated, among them former UN
Peacekeeping chief Jean Marie Guehenno and even former French
Permanent Representative Jean Maurice Ripert, who while titularly
employed as envoy on development to Pakistan is said to be in an
office in the UN's nearly empty headquarters tower.
There is also
an
American, the former U.S. Ambassador to Kinshasa, and current UN
envoy to Cote d'Ivoire Choi, both of whom speak French.
While
the UN and
its Security Council may show the Congo this idiomatic respect,
sending lower level representatives on the upcoming trip at this time
of crossroads is a bad sign. Watch this site.
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