For
UN Drones,
Ladsous Put
Out Bids 7
Weeks Before
UNSC Orange
Light
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 25 --
For months UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous
has claimed
that he would
move on his
dream of
drones once
inter-governmental
consultations
and approvals
had taken
place.
But
now it emerges
that even
before the
first -- but
not only
required --
limited "case
by case"
approval was
obtained from
UN
Security
Council
president
Masood Khan on
January 22,
Ladsous's DPKO
had already
put out a
request
"Expressions
of Interest"
for drones
back on
November 28,
2012.
The
closing date
was January 11
-- before any
approval at
all.
Inner
City Press has
identified the
UN Procurement
document, here.
Notably,
in November
2012 Ladsous
was looking
for drones in
"support of
peacekeeping
operations in
West Africa
and/or
Central
Africa." He
initially
wanted drones
for use in
Cote d'Ivoire
in West
African
FrancAfrique.
How
and why would
Ladsous start
this process
before he had
even a single
approval? In
March 2012
when his
proposal was
met with
opposition in
a closed door
meeting of the
C-34 committee
on
peacekeeping,
members
told Inner
City Press
they suspects
Ladsous would
just get
drones
from the
French
contractor
Thales, and
give the
information
collected
to France.
Ladsous
is
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to head
DPKO, and was
foisted on the
UN without so
much as an
interview, as
a last minute
replacement
for
Jerome
Bonnafont.
When
Inner City
Press reported
on this last
minute
surprise, Agence
France
Presse began a
process
against Inner
City Press in
the UN
Correspondents
Association (a/k/a UN
Censorship
Alliance),
in which
UNCA
met with "UN
officials
(very quietly)"
to move to
dis-accredit
Inner City
Press.
After
fight-back
this didn't
work. And on
January 25
Inner City
Press asked
both Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
associate
spokesman
Farhan Haq
and Security
Council
president
Masood Khan
about Ladsous'
drone plan.
Haq
said that
consultations
with other
bodies would
continue, but
when
asked who
would get the
information,
said all
fifteen
Security
Council
member.
Less
than an hour
later, a
Security
Council member
disputed this
to Inner
City Press,
and called
Khan's letter
not a green
but "orange"
light, case by
case, only the
Congo, "a
trial."
When
Khan as
Council
president for
January took
questions he
told Inner
City Press he
was
unaware that
the
procurement
had begun, or
at least of
Haq's
statement.
(Haq
was seen later
on Friday
going into the
Security
Council
chambers. We
note however
that this is
usually the
time when the
spokesperson's
office meet
with the next
month's
president, and
both lead
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
and his Deputy
Eduardo Del
Buey were out
of the office
in New York on
Friday.)
Security
Council
sources tell
Inner City
Press that
this issue of
when the
procurement
began came up
in closed door
Council
consultations.
When
will Ladsous,
despite his
reliance on
his sponsor
the Permanent
Five
member France,
be called on
this?
From
the UN's
January 25
transcript:
Inner
City Press: a
letter has
been released
in which the
Security
Council
apparently
gives its
blessing to
the use of
unmanned
aerial
surveillance
vehicles by
DPKO
[Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations],
but what
wasn’t clear
to me from
this is, it
was said
earlier by
DPKO that they
would seek all
of the
approvals
needed, and
I had asked
Martin
[Nesirky],
what are the
approvals
needed? Does
DPKO believe
that it needs
the consent of
the Committee
on
Peacekeeping,
C34 [Committee
of 34], of the
General
Assembly?
Where
does it
actually stand
in terms of
them using
drones? Have
they
begun
procurement?
Would they
accept it from
a Member
State, and who
would get the
information
feed from
these drones?
Associate
Spokesperson
Farhan Haq:
Yeah, on that:
first of all,
the basic
point to make
is one that
we’ve made
before, which
is that UN
peacekeeping
assets and
resources are
used in line
with Security
Council
mandates,
force
requirements
and
guidelines.
Beyond that,
in this
particular
case, a
procurement
procedure has
been launched.
And we have
had a formal
written
consent from
the Government
of the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo to
deploy these
assets, and
neighbouring
countries in
the Great
Lakes region
have also been
notified. And
that is part
of our
response to
the Security
Council
approving the
trial use of
unmanned
aerial
vehicles
(UAVs) on a
case-by-case
basis by the
UN
peacekeeping
mission in the
DRC.
Inner
City Press:
When does the
procurement
end? And
again, I have
asked
this about six
times, who
gets the
information?
DPKO collects
information,
filmed, do all
15 members of
the Security
Council get
it, or 193
Member States
get it? Where
does the
information
go?
Associate
Spokesperson
Haq: Well,
obviously,
first we’ll
have to
acquire the
information
and then see
from there
about how that
is used,
because
it will go, of
course, to the
members of the
Security
Council,
because they
are the ones
who have been…
who have
requested
this,
have approved
this. Now, in
terms of the
procurement
process, it
has
been launched.
We will
provide
further
details about
procurement
once that
happens, but
it has just
begun.
Just
begun? Watch
this site.
, 
