Looking
in Mali for UN
Cash Are
French
Contractors Thales,
Bolloré &
Sodexho
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 4 --
After France
intervened in
Mali, it got
the UN
Security
Council and
Fifth (Budget)
Committee to
approve a UN
Peacekeeping
mission there,
MINUSMA.
Now
it emerges
that French
companies are
lining up to
get the UN
money
for providing
logistics for
the MINUSMA
mission, run
by UN
Peacekeeping
under its
fourth French
chief in a
row, Herve
Ladsous.
While
Ladsous
refuses to
answer Press
questions (video here, UK
coverage
here),
those named as
lining up at
the trough to
get paid by
Ladsous'
MINUSMA are
not only US-based
Pacific
Architects
&
Engineers
but also
French
companies
Thales
Communications
et Services,
Bolloré, Geos
and
Sodexho, which
has been big
in private
prisons, of
interest given
the
UN's inaction
on its Malian
partners
locking up
children.
On
December 3,
beyond asking
French
ambassador to
the UN Gerard
Araud
about the
Malian Army
shooting
unarmed
protesters
in Kidal,
Inner
City Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky:
Inner
City
Press: on
Mali, there
was a report
naming
children that
are
incarcerated
by the Malian
Army and
authorities,
saying they
should
be released
and describing
exactly how
they were
imprisoned.
Given
that MINUSMA
(United
Nations
Multidimensional
Integrated
Stabilization
Mission in
Mali) works
with the
Malian army
and there
is a UN
presence
there,
including
human rights
monitoring,
has the UN
chimed in on
this? Are they
seeking the
release of
these children
detainees of
the Malian
authorities?
Spokesperson:
I’ll need to
check. I don’t
have anything
on that,
Matthew.
And
more than 24
hours later,
still nothing.
Meanwhile as
France
dominates UN
Peacekeeping
through the
taciturn Ladsous,
with his
history of
arguing for
the escape of
genocidaires
from Rwanda
into
Eastern Congo
over which he
now flies a
drone, and
tries to get
UN
Peacekeeping
deals in Mali
for its
contractors,
Reuters is
reporting
on the end of
FrancAfrique.
Hardly. Watch
this site.
, 
