In
Syria,
UN Says
Patrols
Stopped, SC
Says Continue,
Ladsous' Moody
Memo
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 18 --
While at noon
the UN
Secretariat
told Inner
City
Press that in
Syria its
mission's
"patrols
remain
suspended,"
when Inner
City Press
five hours
later asked
Security
Council
president Li
Baodong of
China, he said
the mission is
"still
working."
The
source of the
mystery is
Mood,
specifically
General Robert
Mood and the
head of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous.
The latter
notified the
Security
Council
on Friday that
the UNSMIS
mission had,
as of 6 pm
local time in
Syria, stopped
mobile
activities.
Inner City
Press obtained
the memo and
exclusively
published it
Friday at 10
pm.
But
then Mood,
after
belatedly
reiterating
Saturday on
YouTube the
Friday night
notification,
on Sunday said
he and the
mission stand
ready to
witness the
release of
civilians. It
was this to
which Li
Baodong
referred. But
if even the UN
doesn't
understand
what its
Mission in
Syria is
going, how are
Syrians
supposed to
understand?
Mood
will brief
the Security
Council on
Tuesday
afternoon, but
it seems
behind closed
doors. He has
yet to do a
stakeout, and
Herve Ladsous
is legend for
rebuffing most
of the media,
and Inner City
Press
entirely,
saying
"Well,
Mister, I will
start
answering your
questions when
you stop
insulting me
and making
malicious and
insulting
insinuations."
The video, at
Minute
28:10, is
online here.
But
how NOT to
"make
insinuations"
when the
communications
are
so unclear,
and never
clarified?
Meanwhile
in
the North Lawn
building on
Monday, many
uniformed
peacekeeping
leaders milled
around in the
ACABQ office
vacant as they
committee
travels to
Senegal and
West Africa.
Several
greeted Inner
City Press
warmly,
referring to
last year's
visit and
questions and
answers.
Maybe they
haven't gotten
the memo from
Ladsous. It
seems the
Security
Council got
his Friday
memo, but some
don't quite
believe
it.
So, again, why
did
Ban Ki-moon
and his
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous, the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
that post,
decide on June
15 to limit
the mobility
of the UN
Mission in
Syria, and to
tell Security
Council
members but
make no public
announcement?
Such
Security
Council
documents
routinely
leak,
predictably to
the wire
services
affiliated
with Western
permanent
members of the
Council. But
that did not
happen in this
case: rather,
Inner City
Press obtained
a copy of the
notification,
confirmed and
published it
before 10 pm
New York time
on June 15.
Eight
hours later,
still seeing
no
announcement
by the UN or
any Council
member, Inner
City Press asked the
spokespeople
for UN - Arab
League Joint
Special Envoy
Kofi Annan
then for Ban
Ki-moon and
Ladsous to
explain the
notification,
what lay
behind it
(i.e. what
supposedly
increased
violence) and
what they
wanted next.
Only Annan's
Ahmad Fawzi
replied, and
only to say
that UNSMIS
and Mood would
now be having
an
announcement.
What
explains the
delay? And who
made the
decision?
One
working theory
is that
Ladsous, the
head of DPKO
whose
notification
it is, made
the decision
on behalf of
his native
France, for
which he was
an operative
in the foreign
ministry as
recently as
arranging
Michele
Aliot-Marie's
flights on
planes owned
by cronies of
Tunisian
dictator Ben
Ali. That's
why he won't
answer.
In
this theory,
though there
was little
INCREASED
violence to
point to,
Ladsous and
France wanted
to raise the
stakes for
General Robert
Mood's already
scheduled
visit to New
York and the
Security
Council, to
put it in the
context of
UNSMIS being
OVER, no
longer
improvable.
Otherwise,
Mood should
have given his
public
statement when
the decision
to limit his
Mission was
made, to
obviate the
risk of a
Security
Council leak
on Friday.
Such a leak did
take
place, but
not in the
most
predictable
way. Or, some
wonder, did
though
Western-member
aligned wire
services know
of the
decision and
not report it?
Notably,
the UN
representatives
of Reuters,
Agence France
Presse, (US)
Voice of
America and
Bloomberg are
four of five
signers of a
letter seeking
to investigate
and expel
Inner City
Press. We'll
have more
on this.
, 
