Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

At UN on Libya, France's Weapon Drop Triggers July 7 Meeting, Stalls Syria

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, July 6, updated -- After France's weapons drop into Libya triggered a closed door fight in the UN Security Council on July 5, now a meeting of the Libya sanctions committee has been scheduled for July 7.

Initially, Western ambassadors said the criticism of France's action by Russia, South Africa and others could wait until the Council's July 11 session on Libya. But now there's a sanctions meeting Thursday afternoon. “Yes, that's new,” a Western Deputy Permanent Representative confirmed to Inner City Press on Wednesday evening.

In the July 5 consultations, participants tell Inner City Press, the United States insisted that they had drafted the Libya resolutions to allow for such weapons drops. Calling this “sneaky drafting,” there is now resistance to even considering the Europeans' draft resolution on Syria. This one contains no tricks, its proponents seemed to argue. But disputes about Libya have stalled action on Syria.

This is a major dynamic for now in the Security Council, sometimes alternatively presented as “the BRICS flexing their muscles.”

A Western argument goes that it is unfair, most poignantly to the Syrian people, to sabotage all other Council issues because of disagreements about how Libya has turned out.

But others feel that the West, France in particular, sabotaged and poisoned the concept of protection of civilians going forward. Some liken France's “this is my interpretation” arrogance to what they also call the arrogance of George W. Bush's argument that invasion of Iraq did not require UN Council approval. Why didn't France come back to the Council and ask for a rule or interpretation?

Sarkozy glad-hands Ban, notification under Reso 1973 and top DPKO post not shown

There are also questions, in light of France's actions, about why it should be allow to replace outgoing Peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy with another Frenchman. (Click here for Inner City Press' exclusive July 5 story on candidate Bonnafont.) That too will be further discussed.

Footnote: Also on tap for July 7, Inner City Press is reliably told, is the transmission of the UN panel's flotilla report, or “Flotilla I” report. Sources within the process confirmed to Inner City Press on Wednesday night that's the plan, even with Ban Ki-moon “once again” out of town. Watch this site.

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On Libya, After France Brags of Breaking Embargo, It Says Others Like Qatar Can Too: Russia “Expected” to Pursue

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 5, updated -- After bragging about air-dropping weapons to rebels in Western Libya, France now claims that others can step in. French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet was quoted July 5 that the rebels' “autonomy allows them to establish relations with external partners, including when it comes to equipping themselves in self-defense.”

There is a UN Security Council arms embargo on Libya, on all sides of the conflict. Inner City Press on Tuesday morning outside the Council asked the chairman of the Libya Sanctions committee, Portugal's Permanent Representative Cabral, if there has been any move to consider if France's admitted actions violated the embargo.

“We are expecting the Russians to raise it today,” Cabral told Inner City Press before going back into the Council for a closed door meeting, initially on July's program of work under the new German presidency.

Since France's admission, Gaddafi's forces say they have intercepted weapons from Qatar meant for the rebels. With Qatar having just acquired the Presidency of the UN General Assembly, among other posts and events, things could get interesting. Watch this site.

Update of 11:52 am -- after the consultations broke up, Western sources said that French ambassador Gerard Araud argued at length why dropped arms into Libya is “notwithstanding” legal, and claimed there was little opposition. The Russian delegation told Inner City Press “we cannot agree,” and said they asked Libya sanctions chair Cabral to convene a meeting of the committee.

Cabral himself told Inner City Press that no meeting has been scheduled and he doubts that one will before UN part time envoy Al Khatib comes to brief the Security Council on July 11. We'll see.

Update of 12:52 pm -- At German Permanent Representative Wittig's 12:30 press conference about the Security Council's program of work during his month as president, Inner City Press asked him about the morning's closed door consultations at which France's dropping of weapons was discussed. He acknowledged it was discussed but said that there was “no agreement.”

So even a meeting of the Sanctions Committee on this issue was blocked? July 11 will be al Khatib.

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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.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video Analysis here

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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