In
Mali, French
Triple Play
Has EU
Lecointre
& UN
Ladsous,
Sanogo Not
Shown
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 27 –
With a move on
in the UN
Security
Council to
prepare a blue
helmeted UN
Peacekeeping
mission for
Mali, rather
than
the African
AFISMA mission
approved in
December, it
looks like it
could be a
clean sweep
for France.
UN
Peacekeeping
is run by
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row
in that
position.
Ladsous in
fact was
France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
to the UN in
and around
1994.
On
Wednesday
Inner City
Press asked
France's
current
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud,
what about
coup leader
Captain Amadou
Sanogo now
being formally
in charge of
the “reform”
of the Malian
military?
Araud
replied that
it is possible
to deal only
with Mali's
General Chief
of
Staff, who is
named Ibrahima
Dahirou
Dembele.
In
this, Araud
followed the
line of the
head of the
European Union
Training
Mission
(EUTM),
General
Francois
Lecointre, who
said between
Ibrahima
Dahirou
Dembele and
Defense
Minister
Yamoussa
Camara, “these
contacts are
sufficient for
me.”
And
Francois
Lecointre is
what? A French
military
official, of
course.
Call it the
French
connection.
Inner
City Press
also asked
Araud about
reports that
Chad had told
France
that Malian
fighters have
escaped into
Darfur in
Sudan.
Araud
said he was
not aware of
this, and it
was not
discussed in
Security
Council
consultations.
But shouldn't
it have been?
Since the
Council
already has a
$1 billion
peacekeeping
mission in
Darfur?
And
what DID
Sudanese
foreign
minister Ali
Karti discuss
with his
French
counterpart
Laurent Fabius
in Paris?
Watch this
site.
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