Ladsous
Refuses to
Answer
on Cholera,
Touts Cote
d'Ivoire
"Cooperation"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 12 --
For 24 hours
the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations has
had no answer
on any steps
it has taken
to try to
avoid a repeat
of its
bringing
cholera into
Haiti.
When
Inner City
Press asked
the UN's
deputy envoy
to Haiti Nigel
Fisher on
Tuesday, he
said he could
not answer for
the wider
DPKO.
The
spokesman for
DPKO chief
Herve Ladsous
was present at
Tuesday's
stakeout. But,
having
received no
answer, Inner
City Press
asked the
question again
at Wednesday's
noon briefing
to Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky. He
said he would
ask DPKO.
But
five hours
later, there
was no answer.
So when the
chief of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous
walked out of
a Security
Council
"debate"
on
inter-Mission
cooperation,
Inner City
Press waited
until he had
finished
answering in
French then
asked him,
"What steps
has
DPKO taken to
not spread
cholera."
Ladsous
did
not answer. We
will not here
characterize
his
expression.
But now
it must be
noted that
most of his
examples of
cooperation
involved
former French
colony Cote
d'Ivoire, from
which UN
Peacekeeping
and
the French
Force Licorne
ousted Laurent
Gbagbo.
When
Ladsous was
spokesman for
the Quai
d'Orsay, he
denounced
Gbagbo, just
as he had
defended the
ouster of
Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
Most
troubling are
Ladsous'
statements in
1994 during
the Rwanda
genocide;
he was taken
to task inside
the Security
Council by
Rwanda's
Ambassador in
1995.
Now
Ladsous
purports to
objectively
run UN
Peacekeeping.
But he refuses
to answer
questions
about Eastern
Congo, and
today about
cholera in
Haiti.
It
was suggested
to Inner City
Press that if
it focused on
present day
issues and
not, say,
Ladsous in
1994, Ladsous
would answer.
But he
has not, even
on the easiest
questions, or
the questions
that he most
should answer
as head of
DPKO. He is
paid public
money.
We
can add this:
even people
who knew
Ladsous in
1994 say he
has gotten
worse and more
arrogant. DPKO
chief Alain Le
Roy used to
give out
his cell phone
number; he
wanted to
answer
questions. (He
also danced
with his
people and
greeted the
Press at
DPKO's holiday
party.)
Ladsous has a
different
image of
himself. But
again: he is
paid public
money. Watch
this site.
, 
