On
Protesters
Shot in Kidal,
Araud Urges
Probe, Hasn't
Read of
Ouattara Hit
Men
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 3 --
With France
taking over
presidency of
the UN
Security
Council for
December, its
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
took
questions from
the press on
Tuesday.
Inner City
Press asked
him about
the Malian
Army shooting
protesters in
Kidal, and
about the UN's
report of
agents of Cote
d'Ivoire
president and
French ally
Alassane
Ouattara going
into Ghana to
try to kill or
kidnap
supporters of
former
president
Laurent
Gbagbo.
On
these Cote
d'Ivoire
aspects of the
UN Liberia
Sanctions
report, Araud
replied that
he hasn't read
the
report. In
two days,
Liberia
Sanctions are
on the
Security
Council's
agenda.
On
the shooting
of protesters
in Kidal, on
which the UN
has confined
itself to a
press release
from the
MINUSMA
mission which
even Reuters
deemed
unclear,
Araud provided
a bit more
information.
He
acknowledged
that two
female
demonstrators
were left in
critical
condition.
Araud
alluded to the
larger issues
of the
Tuaregs,
saying that
some in
Bamako and the
south view
them as
accomplices to
or complicit
with
("complice")
the Islamist
takeover of
the north.
But
if a
solution would
be more
equitable
distribution
of resources
and more
impartiality
by the UN, the
UN mission
siding with
the Malian
Army as
they shoot
protesters is
hardly
condusive to
this.
Araud
said the
protesters
were throwing
rocks. But is
that a
sufficient
reason for an
army, one the
UN and France
are providing
support to,
to open fire?
Araud said
this requires
a Malian
judicial and
administrative
investigation,
and also one
by MINUSMA.
Given UN
Peacekeeping's
recent history
of sitting on
or burying
reports, it is
difficult to
have
confidence in
this.
Earlier
on
Tuesday, Araud
had been
scheduled to
speak about Syria at
the
Security
Council
stakeout. That
got canceled;
Araud had to
brief
non-Council
member states.
Inner City
Press on
behalf of the
new Free
UN
Coalition for
Access
thanked Araud
(he kept it
newsy so we
will)
and hoped that
he will do as
many question
and answer
stakeouts as
last month's
presidency,
China -- nine.
In one of
Araud's
previous
presidencies
-- he'd said
he thought his
one fifteen
months ago
would be his
last -- he did
a mere three
question and
answer
stakeouts.
That might
have been related
in part to
which month it
was. December
as he said will
be busy. Watch
this site.
Footnotes:
Araud
initially made
light of a
question about
the Central
African
Republic
rebels Seleka
and the
diamond trade,
alluding to
former
French
president
Valerie
Giscard
d'Estaing and,
it seemed, to
the
French luxury
goods to then
"Emperor"
Bokasa. Araud
returned to
the question
by reading
from the
pending
resolution,
noting the
suspension of
CAR from the
diamond trade
Kimberly
Process.
A
question on
French firm
Areva and the
Fukushima
nuclear
disaster,
Araud flatly
refused,
saying it is
not on the
Security
Council's
agenda (true)
and is "not a
threat to
international
peace and
security"
(less
certain).
Inner City
Press might
ask: what then
about Areva
and its
lobbying
against paying
taxes in
Niger, which
at
least through
the Sahel IS
on the
Security
Council's
agenda? Should
be an
interesting
month - we'll
have (much)
more. Watch
this site.
, 
