France,
Under
Fire on Roma & from Al Qaeda, Hides from the Press at UN
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 21 -- With confirmation that the French uranium
workers in Niger abducted last Thursday are being held by Al Qaeda in
the Islamic Maghreb, recent French hijinx at the United Nations are
increasingly being questioned.
Two months before this UN General Debate, France's
former diplomat Douste Blazy was exposed, including by this
publication, for siphoning off $11 million in UNITAID funds to raise a
mere $200,000. Still, Douste Blazy appears in this week's MDG
Summit.
French
President
Nicholas Sarkozy was in New York for three days, including his speech
Monday to the Summit, but he did not hold any media availabilities with
the UN press corps.
Sources
say Sarkozy wanted to avoid the
inevitable questions about his policy of expelling Romas or gypsies
from France. Previously, Sarkozy held a
"French only" press conference at the UN, excluding even a Francophone
Lebanese reporter for lack of a French passport.
A
day before
Sarkozy, French Defense Minister Herve Morin came to the UN. In light
of the previous day's kidnappings in Niger, Inner City Press
specifically
asked Morin about his country's war on Al Qaeda, leading
to the military action along with Mauritanian troops against northern
Mali in July. Video here,
from Minute 14:42.
Kouchner previously at UN with Ripert, inaction on
Pakistan not shown
Morin
told the
Press, that “France is determined to combat Al Qaeda... France is
committed to combat this cancer which has invaded the Sahara.” He
said France trained troops in Mauritania, Mali and Niger to fight
“four to five hundred fanatics.”
Now
the five
French hostages have been taken from Niger into Mali. France is
flying surveillance planes over the desert. Even in New York, the
security seems to be high.
French
foreign minister Bernard Kouchner,
who claims he almost quit over the Roma issue, will host a reception
Friday night at the French facility on Fifth Avenue and 79th Street.
Even journalists who questioned Morin are not invited, or are
specifically dis-invited. Is it fear for security, or fear of
questions? Watch this site.
* * *
At
UN,
Morin of France Dismisses Georgia on Mistrals, Dodges Roma
Question
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 19 -- When French Defense Minister Herve Morin
came to the UN on September 17, Inner City Press asked him about his
country's proposed sale of Mistral ships to Russia. Morin began with
a long answer about Russia's changes since 1989, calling for a change
of “mental paradigm.”
When
Inner City
Press asked as a follow up, “What about the war with Georgia?”
Morin replied dismissively, can we imagine that “the sale of a few
vessels can significantly change the balance of force between Georgia
and Russia?” Yes, we can.
Inner
City Press
asked about France's declared war on Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Morin mentioned Mauritania, Mali and Niger and spoke of “400 to 500
fanatical fighters,” saying that France will take then on. Some
wondered why France does not focus on the similarly sized Lord's
Resistance Army in the Congo, CAR and South Sudan.
Morin at UN on Sept 17, Roma answer and entourage not shown
Footnote:
Morin,
French reporters tell Inner City Press, came to New York with
an entourage of 24, in the process of announcing his new political
party to challenge President Sarkozy (who has been in New York this
weekend visiting his son now that his previous wife has
moved to New York with Richard Attias, the French reporters say.)
It
was surprising,
then, that Morin declined to answer a reporters reflexive question
about Sarkozy's crack down on the Roma, saying instead that neither
US officials nor Ban Ki-moon had raised it. If the burning of a Koran
could put US soldiers at risk, how not the expulsion of the Roma?
Inner City Press has requested access to various French mission
events this week, to get the answers and France's side of the story:
watch this site.
* * *
Gambari's
Travails
with Dictators Shown in UKUN Documents, Myanmar Now Darfur
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive, Must Credit
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 19 -- The UN's Ibrahim Gambari was humiliated by
the military rulers of Myanmar
in 2009, internal documents of the UK
Mission to the UN obtained by Inner City Press show. For example, of
Gambari's 2009 trip the UK Mission wrote:
“Gambari's
visit on 26-27 June lasted a mere 32 hours. As on previous
encounters, his programme was revealed to him on arrival. He was
driven directly to the new capital, Naypyitaw, a 4-hour drive from
Rangoon. A flight to Naypyitaw would have taken an hour.”
Earlier
more
optimistic projections, including from the September 2009 meeting
Group of Friends on Myanmar meeting (similar to the forthcoming
meeting on the sidelines of this week's UN General Debate) came to
very little. In 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest and
her NLD party has been dissolved.
Beyond
showing
Gambari's and the UN's subservience to Than Shwe and others in
Burma's military regime, the documents will raise more questions
about Gambari's questionable engagement with Sudan's Omar al Bashir
government, from which Gambari as head of Darfur's UNAMID
peacekeeping mission awaits permission before even sending troops to
protect civilians.
The
Myanmar
documents of the UK Mission to the UN and of the UK Mission in
Yangon, which Inner City Press is exclusively
putting online here, include
-a
document
thanking Italy and summarizing Gambari's visit in early 2009
during which a “meeting was attended by the members of the CEC but
the Burmese/Myanmar authorities insisted on the exclusion of Win
Tin;”
-a
2006
document in which Gambari “did acknowledge that there were now
cross-border implications to the issue, as a result of the situation
in the Kayin State;” and
-another
2006
document reciting Gambari's claim that “Than Shwe had pointed
out the challenges facing the country, including the underdeveloped
border areas, and the role of the military. Gambari commented that
he thought Than Shwe would like to re-engage with the international
community, and to turn a new page in relations with the UN.”
After
these claims,
and in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the Than Shwe government took up
to 25% of the UN's aid by means of scam foreign exchange conversion
which the UN covered up, until exposed by Inner City Press.
UN's Ban & Gambari spin on Myanmar, UK docs and
Darfur not shown
Now
with Gambari
in Darfur, seeking permission before protecting civilians and
reportedly angling to turn over to the government rebels who support
Abdel Wahid Nur, the Myanmar documents provide a glimpse some say
into the pro dictatorship leanings of a diplomat who formerly
represented a military government at the UN.
Read the
Gambari documents here, and
imagine what similar internal documents about the (in)actions of
Gambari's successor Vijay Nambiar will show. Watch this site.
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