After
UN
Peacekeepers
Protested
& Injured
in Congo,
Ladsous
Refuses to
Explain
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 14 -- So
who shot
between seven
and 11 UN
peacekeepers
from Pakistan
in the Congo,
and why? The
UN
Under-Secretary
General
for
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous
was summoned
to brief the
Security
Council Monday
afternoon, but
afterward
unlike his
predecessors
did
not do a
stakeout or
speak to the
press.
Pakistan's
delegation,
members of the
Council for
this year and
next, told
Inner City
Press
that some of
the
peacekeepers
have been
taken to South
Africa from
treatment.
Others added
that while put
in a bad
situation, the
Pakistani
soldiers
showed
restraint.
So who put
them in a bad
situation?
More
than six
hours before
Ladsous
against
refused to
speak, the UN
spokesman said
that
seven
peacekeepers
were wounded
in the
Bunyiakiri
area of South
Kivu on
Monday. The
seven
peacekeepers
sustained
bullet wounds.
A number of
other
peacekeepers
were also
injured after
being hit by
stones when a
group of some
1,000 people
surrounded a
base belonging
to the Mission
in the area.
The people
were
reportedly
protesting
against
attacks
by the Forces
Démocratiques
pour la
Libération
du Rwanda
(FDLR) in
the area. The
Mission says
elements of
the Mayi-Mayi
group, Rai
Mutomboki, an
armed
self-defence
group, may
have been part
of the
protest and
may have fired
on the
peacekeepers.
More
detailed
reports say
that those in
the villages
attacked by
the FDLR
blamed
the UN
Peacekeepers
for not
protecting
them. Inner
City Press
asked
this month's
Council
President, the
Ambassador of
Azerbaijan
about
this, but he
said he had no
information
beyond the
press
statement he
read out.
In
the past,
until
now
dis-elected
Nicolas
Sarkozy
imposed
Ladsous on the
UN to replace
Alain Le Roy,
the chiefs of
peacekeeping
were the ones
to take
questions and
explain DPKO's
work.
With Ladsous
refusing to,
some
hope he'll be
replaced by
Francois
Hollande, if
nothing else
because
of his role as
chief of staff
to Sarkozy's
scandal
plagued
foreign
minister
Michele Alliot
Marie, who
took flights
from cronies
of
Tunisia's Ban
Ali.
There's
also the
matter of
Herve Ladsous'
pitch for the
UN to start
using drones,
made
behind closed
doors to the
C-34
Committee,
members of
which complain
Ladsous
already has
French firm
Thales on
stand-by.
DPKO
military
adviser
Babicar Gaye
did answer a
press
question, sort
of, blaming it
on "local
dynamics." But
did MONUSCO
under Roger
Meece have
the right
terms of
engagement for
Pakistan's
battalion? And
this
chief of DPKO
can't or won't
answer it, we
need a new
one. Watch
this
site.
, 
