By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 17 --
After Mali
police shot at
civilians in
Kidal,
French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
when asked by
Inner City
Press said
there should
be an
investigation.
That was at
the beginning
of December,
Araud's
(last?) month
as UN Security
Council
president.
Since
then, the UN
peacekeepers
themselves
have shot
civilians. On
December 16
Inner City
Press asked
Araud a
question, and
he said to ask
the UN
Secretariat.
Inner City
Press did, on
December 17
but UN
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
did not answer
whether the UN
Peacekeepers
have become
"combatants,"
both by
shooting at
civilians and
by being
co-housed with
the France
Serval force,
a party to an
armed
conflict.
So
this is a
question that
Araud should
have to
answer, both
as Security
Council
president and
as France's
Ambassador to
the UN. But at
a stakeout
later on
December 17
about South
Sudan, after
agreeing to
answer a
non-South
Sudan question
from Reuters
(predictably
about removing
Assad from
executive
power in
Syria, a
French
desire), Araud
sniffed and
rejected this
very question
about Mali.
Inner City
Press YouTube
video here,
and embedded
below.
Are UN
peacekeepers,
under the
command of
Herve Ladsous
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to head UN
Peacekeeping,
now
combatants,
co-housed with
French troops
and shooting
at civilians?
Araud
launched into
a lecture
about how
peacekeeping
missions are
structured --
France should
know, of
course -- and
then told
Inner City
Press it
should check
into this
philosophy
before even
asking a
question.
He
then walked
away from the
stakeout
microphone
without
answering if
the UN
peacekeepers
have become
combatants. An
Agence
France Presse
scribe,
who previously
tried to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN
with a
complaint
leading with
how Inner City
Press asked a
question to
Ladsous about
rapes by his
partners in
the Congolese
Army, stood
smirking, as
if empowered
by Araud's
walk-away from
the stakeout.
Et bien, non.
Araud
might use
the stakeout
to try to get
more business
for French
companies in
the UN
Peacekeeping
France already
dominates
-- we'll have
more on this
-- and to
solicit
softball
questions
while refusing
to answer, two
days in a row
now, questions
about the UN
mission in
Mali now
shooting at
civilians.
But
ultimately, as
President of
the Security
Council this
question about
peacekeepers
becoming
combatants and
therefore
targets must
be answered.
Watch this
site.
, 
