Seeking
Peacebuilding
Chair, EU
Slowed Funding
to CAR,
Sources Say,
Rebels &
Nobel Ensued
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 20, updated
twice
-- As rebels
drive on
Bangui, what
has the UN
Peacebuilding
Configuration
for the
Central
African
Republic being
doing?
Very little,
multiple
diplomats told
Inner City
Press on
Thursday.
Since
Belgium's
Permanent
Representative
Jan Grauls
resigned, the
chair of the
CAR
configuration
has been
vacant.
The
European Union
wants to
become the
chair, in its
own right. But
this
requires the
consent of the
government of
the Central
African
Republic,
which did not
immediately
agree.
And
so, well
placed PBC
diplomats tell
Inner City
Press, the EU
slowed
funding to the
Bozize
government of
CAR.
"It was to
gain
leverage," one
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press.
"But now
Bozize
couldn't make
his DDR
payments to
the rebels,
and they're
trying to
overthrow
him." What was
that again,
about
the EU Nobel
Prize?
An African
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press it
had not been
his
understanding
that the EU
could get the
chair of a
Peacebuilding
configuration.
Update
of 4:15 pm:
Inner City
Press asked
French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
about the EU's
quest to chair
the CAR
Peacebuilding
configuration.
Araud said he
heard only
this morning
that the EU
"is not a
volunteer" for
the position
and "will not
get it." Video
here, from
Minute 5:20.
Soon after
this UNTV
stakeout,
several EU
members told
Inner City
Press this is
not the case.
We can
understand the
question came
up publicly
very question
- based on
this expose -
and will seek
clarification.
2d
update:
an EU member
with an
embassy in
Bangui tells
Inner City
Press they
meet
periodically
with President
Bozize and
this hasn't
come up - yet.
Inner
City Press
asked the UN's
envoy on
sexual
violence and
conflict
Zainab Hawa
Bangura, who
recently
visited CAR
for eight
days, what
the UN
Peacebuilding
Commission has
accomplished
in CAR. She
was
hard-pressed
to list
things,
mentioned $2
million
dollars, and
doctors
"without even
a motorcycle."
Bangura
said
that of the
eight armed
groups in CAR,
two are
"foreign"
- the Lord's
Resistance
Army and
another led by
a Chadian -
and of
the other six,
some 60 to 70
percent of
their fighters
are Chadians.
Inner
City Press
asked why then
the UN is
treating CAR's
rebels and
Chad so
differently
than Congo's
M23 and
Rwanda.
Bangura said
she could not
answer that
question.
Footnote:
Bangura was
generally
candid, and
Inner City
Press on
behalf of the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
thanked her
for her
answers. Video
here, from
Minute 16:48.
It would
have been fine
then for a
similar UNCA
thanks to be
given -- but
the
word
"legitimate"
was attached
to the
intervention.
Video here,
at Minute
24:04.
As
noted three
minutes later
(video
here from
Minute 27:08),
an election
was required
by December 15,
and the
leaving of
office by the
executive
committee on
December 31.
One deadline
has
been missed
and other
is threatened,
by an e-mail
that has yet
to be
explained.
Legitimate?
Not so much.
Watch this
site.
, 
