French
PR Delattre
Refuses
Questions on
Mali, MNLA
& Gao, “I
Have to Run”
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
updated
UNITED
NATIONS, March
4 -- When
French
Ambassador
Francois
Delattre came
to the UN
Security
Council
stakeout
on March 4 it
was as
Council
president,
with "Elements
to the Press
on Mali and
then a
read-out on
Libya. Then he
took three
questions.
But all three
of the
handpicked
questions --
France 24,
Agence France
Presse then
Voice of
America --
were about
Libya. Inner
City Press
said twice,
"Question on
Mali?"
Delattre
smiled and
said, I have
to run, I know
it is the
second time.
On March 3
Delattre used
the same "I
have to run"
line to not
answer a
question about
Burundi, where
France is set
to lead a
Council trip
on March 13,
the draft
Terms of
Reference for
which (which
Inner City
Press
published here)
do no mention
the Cibitoke
massacre nor
opine if a
third
Presidential
term would
violate the
Arusha
agreement,
which is
cited.
Delattre in
fact didn't
run; Inner
City Press
asked about
the MNLA not
signing the
deal Delattre
has just
praised on
behalf of the
Council, and
about the
completed
report on UN
Peacekeepers
shooting at
demonstrators
in Gao: what
will the
Council do
with it?
Delattre
did not
answer. And
the French
mission's
transcript of
the stakeout,
here, did
not including
the
on-microphone
Mali
question(s)
and Delattre's
"I have to run."
Later,
the French
mission
put up the
Mali "Elements
to the Press,"
with no
mention that a
question about
them had been
asked, on microphone,
and that
Delattre had again
said, "I have
to run."
We are
compelled to
note that UN
Peacekeeping,
run by France
four times in
a row most
recently by
Herve Ladsous
who also does
not
answer Press
questions,
needs to
answer when
its personnel
shoot at
demonstrators,
as recently
happened in
Haiti too.
But there are
no answers.
Nor on the
sale of UN
posts in the
DR Congo and
Haiti by
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Ouattara of
Cote d'Ivoire,
here.
We'll have
more on this.
, 
