As
France
Brags of Violation of Libya Resolution, Should It Head UN Peacekeeping?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, News Analysis
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 29 -- French armed forces spokesman Thierry Burkhard
has “said guns, rocket-propelled grenades and munitions were
parachuted in to rebels in the Nafusa mountains” by the French
government. Since UN Security Council resolution 1973 imposes an arms
embargo on Libya -- all sides of the conflict -- France has now
admitted violating the Council resolution.
While
the Libya
Sanctions committee has been remarkably passive amid reports of
retired British special forces offering training to the rebels, paid
by Qatar, this on
the record bragging about dropping weapons to the
rebels should trigger action.
It
comes days
after the UN confirmed that its top peacekeeping official Alain Le
Roy will leave on or before August 23. Sources in the Ban Ki-moon
administration indicate not only that his successor will also be
French, but that there has already been an accepted candidate: Eric
Chevalier. (Others say that his initial selection may change by
August.)
But
the question
arises: should a country that now brags of violating terms imposed by
the Security Council, which sets the mandates of and oversees the
missions of the Department of Peacekeeping Operation, be allowed to
continue to head up UN peacekeeping?
Sarkozy glad-hands Ban, compliance with Reso
1973 and top DPKO post not shown
While
this persona
of “armed humanitarianism” -- or armING, in this case -- is
popular with some, it increasingly raises hackles among BRIC members
of the Security Council, and in the wider UN. For that reason, some
question whether French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud
stepping forward to play a visible role in the UN peacekeeping budget
negotiations is a good idea.
During
last week's
negotiations in the Security Council to authorize Ethiopian troops to
go into Sudan's Abyei area, France is known to have questioned
whether 4000 troops, to be funded by the UN, would really be
necessary. Why not 3000?
When
defense of
human rights runs into conflict with trying to save money, France
seems to have a new solution: airdrop in deadly weapons then wash
hands of the consequence. We'll see.
* * *
UN
Admits
Kadugli Peacekeepers Refused Convoy Escort, France
Downplays It
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June
16 -- When the UN Security Council met behind closed
doors Thursday about the humanitarian situation in South
Kordofan,
Sudan, much criticism was directed at the UN Department of
Peacekeeping Operations, whose troops in Kadugli reported declined to
leave their base and do their jobs, as recently happened with the
Zambian peacekeepers in Abyei.
After
the
meeting,
Inner City Press asked DPKO chief Alain Le Roy about the criticism.
He acknowledged that a UN battalion in Kadugli was “not willing to
escort a convoy... there was heavy shelling.”
Moments
later,
Inner
City Press on camera asked French Ambassador Gerard Araud if
the Council discussed if a peacekeeper battalion declined to provide
escort or come out of its base. According to the
French Mission's
transcript, Araud replied that
“a
question was specifically asked whether all the instructions had
[always] been followed. Alain [Le Roy] told us 'yes, they have always
been followed.' The only example - which was an example where the
personnel was requested to evacuate, so it’s not a question of
protection - was when the personnel hesitated for a few hours because
of their own safety on the ground.”
But
Le Roy spoke
about a battalion refusing to escort a convoy, presumably not only of
soldiers. In fact, the UN evacuated -- or relocated, as UN OCHA put
it -- international staff from Kadugli to El Obeid. In any event,
refusing orders to escort a convoy is a “command and control”
problem, as one Council delegation put it.
Some
skeptics
wonder
if the French Mission's and Ambassador's speed to speak on
these issues is entirely attributable to a concern for protection of
civilians, or might involve defending the performance of DPKO whose
past, current and seemingly future chiefs as promised by S-G Ban
Ki-moon seeking a second term are all French.
France's Araud & spokesman point finger, DPKO
top post now shown
Inner
City
Press
asked Le Roy about the safety of Sudanese UN staff, who were not
evacuated by the UN to El Obaid. Le Roy to his credit said that the
UN was trying to contact all of them by radio, but had not been able
to reach those in “downtown Kadugli because we have no access to
downtown Kadugli.”
Some
question
how
UNMIS can be said to be protecting civilians in Kadugli if it has “no
access to downtown Kadugli.” Watch this site.
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