UNITED
NATIONS, June
18 -- The UN
talks a lot,
in Libya and
elsewhere,
about
protecting
civilians, and
about the
right to
return of
internally
displaced
people.
But
when in Libya
the Tawerghans
set June 25, a
week from now,
as the date on
which they aim
to return to
their homes,
the UN through
envoy Tarek
Mitri urged
against it,
calling it " a
move fraught
with risks."
Inner
City Press on
June 18 asked
Mitri what the
UN is planning
to do for the
next seven
days, to try
to protect the
Tawerghans
from the blood
bath the UN is
predicting.
Mitri
said the UN
can't protect
the
Tawerghans; he
said the
government
can't either.
The UN is
trying to
convince the
government to
offer some
guarantees --
he mentioned
"compensation"
-- to convince
the Tawerghans
not to return
for now.
This
seems like a
strange form
of protection
of civilians,
a Ladsous-ian
one to use a
phrase coined
yesterday
referring to
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous who
wants to use
in Mali an
army that's on
the UN list of
child soldier
recruiters,
and who
continues to
partner with
units of the
Congolese Army
implicated in
135 rapes in
Minova. Video
stonewall here
and here.
Mitri
to his credit
at least
answers
questions. He
said that
Libya has no
intelligence
service, and
needs
cooperation to
secure its
borders.
Inner
City Press
asked June's
Security
Council
president Mark
Lyall Grant
about the
claim by
Chad's
president
Idriss Deby
that Islamists
dislodged by
France from
northern Mali
have gone into
southern
Libya.
Lyall
Grant said
that hadn't
come up as
such in
consultations,
but that
border
security had,
particularly
between Libya
and Chad,
Niger and
Algeria.
Isn't
this the type
of Sahel issue
that Romano
Prodi has been
getting paid
since October
to work on, or
at least
develop a
report on?
Watch this
site.
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