On
Mali, Churkin
Tells ICP
Araud "Went
Too Far," Chad
Doubts ECOWAS
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 15 --
As French
bombing of
Mali expands,
Inner City
Press on
Tuesday asked
the UN if it
has any plans
to track and
report
on the killing
of civilians,
as they do in
other
conflicts.
Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
said he'll see
if any
UN "formal
mechanism." He
would not or
could not
confirm
the figure of
11 civilians
killed so far,
nor the
difficulty in
evacuating the
injured in
Douentza
reported by
Rosa Crestani
of Medecins
Sans
Frontieres.
Earlier,
Inner
City Press
asked the head
of Ban's
Department of
Political
Affairs
Jeffrey
Feltman about
the
requirement in
Security
Council
Resolution
2085 that Ban
"confirm in
advance the
Council's
satisfaction"
with the
planned
military
action.
Feltman
said
that
"satisfaction"
would be
conveyed in
one of the
Secretary
General's
reports, which
are public.
But
they are
public only on
a delay.
Meanwhile, in
terms of
satisfaction,
Inner City
Press was
approach
Tuesday
outside the
Security
Council by
an African
diplomat who
was critical
of a wire
service
headline that
"yesterday the
Security
Council
approved
France's
bombing."
Inner
City Press
then asked
Russian
Permanent
Representative
Vitaly Churkin
if that was an
accurate
account. No,
he said, there
was no outcome
of
the meeting.
What
about what French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud
said at the
stakeout,
that all
members of the
Security
Council
supported
France's
action?
"He
went too far,"
Churkin said
of Araud.
Another
African
diplomat, of a
member of the
West African
group ECOWAS /
CEDAO,
predicted to
Inner City
Press that
France would
just "do
its thing like
in Chad, and
then leave."
The
Permanent
Representative
of Chad, Ahmad
Allam-mi,
exclusively
told Inner
City Press
that he county
would be ready
to send
troops, with
the correct
"format and
mandate."
He said it
shouldn't
"just be a
CEDAO force,"
questioning in
particular the
naming of a
Nigerian
general as
force
commander,
chosen
entirely by
the CEDAO.
Meanwhile
ECOWAS
chair Cote
d'Ivoire may
have sent its
army chief of
staff
Bakayoko to
Bamako, but
Ivorian
Permanent
Representative
Bamba told
Inner City
Press his
country will
not be
contributing
troops, as
they
are "still in
SSR" (security
sector
reform). And
so it
goes. Watch
this site.
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