UN
Won't Answer
on Drones,
Only Vague
Talking
Points, HRW
Silent
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
WASHINGTON,
January
9 -- The
morning after
at least five
countries on
the UN
Security
Council raised
questions
about the
drones
proposal of
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
his
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous,
Inner City
Press asks
Ban's office
in writing:
"What
is
the UN's
response to
concerns
raised about
DPKO's drone /
UAV
proposal, on
issues of who
would get the
information,
how providers
would be
selected, and
compliance
with ICAO?"
These
basic
questions, by
4:45 pm on
Wednesday, had
not been
answered.
Rather, at the
day's noon
briefing in
New York a reporter
from Agence
France-Presse,
on one of the
boards
of which
Ladsous used
to serve,
asked not
about any
safeguards but
only how
soon can
drones start
to
be used?
Video
here, from
Minute 12:35.
This
seems to
totally
ignore, as
Ladsous does,
that given the
opposition
not only in
the C-34
but now in the
Security
Council, the
UN cannot
start using
drones.
Ban's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
consulted his
notes and
referring to
the
cooperation of
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo, and
member
states
assistance in
providing
equipment.
(Some started
picturing
which drones
would be
used.)
Nesirky
also
referred to
"consulting
legislative
bodies," but
did
not specify
which ones.
Inner City
Press has
repeated asked
Nesirky's
office which
bodies, since
Ladsous
refuses to
answer Press
questions
about the
Congo, rape,
cholera or his
accepting as
an adviser
Shavendra
Silva, an
official of
the Sri Lanka
Army, depicted
in the
UN's own
reports as
engaged in war
crimes.
But
Ladsous, and
Ban's
spokeperson's
office, won't
say which
approvals
they
acknowledge
needing. Will
we just, as
Ladsous and
AFP seem to
want, discover
one day or
night that
Ladsous is
using drones?
Also
Wednesday
morning Inner
City Press put
the question
to Human
Rights
Watch, which
brags of but conceals
the specifics
of its access
to Ban
Ki-moon,
for its
position:
"this is a
request for
HRW's position
on the
proposed used
of drones or
UAVs, in
MONUSCO and/or
elsewhere."
The
request was
sent early
Wednesday
morning to
HRW's UN
"director,"
to HRW's press
office, and to
HRW director
Ken Roth. But
by 4:45 pm,
no response at
all was
received. It
would seem
that HRW
should have a
position on
the UN using
drones - or
has HRW
lost its way
in the DRC?
We'll see.
, 
