Two
Days After
Mali Coup,
UNSC to
Consult on
Unchanged
Draft, Opaque
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 12 --
With North
Korea's launch
taking over
the UN
Security
Council's
attention on
Wednesday, the
draft
resolution to
authorize an
ECOWAS force
to Mali was
set to be
unveiled in
consultations
of the 15
members in the
afternoon.
Until
now, the draft
has been held
only by the
Permanent Five
members. A
non Permanent
member,
complaining to
Inner City
Press, said
"France
hasn't even
changed the
draft to
reflect the
second coup."
Inner
City Press has
pointed out
the deposed
Prime
Minister's
Microsoft and
UN
connections,
here. Ban
Ki-moon's
meeting with
the deposed
foreign
minister,
which had been
set for
Tuesday 10:40
am, did not
take place,
Ban's
spokesman told
Inner City
Press.
French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud,
speaking to
the press
outside the
Council
about North
Korea then on
Mali, alluded
to the events
in Bamako in
recent days.
He said a new
Prime Minister
has been
appointed.
Araud
downplayed the
split about
"one or two
resolutions,"
saying
it is really a
question of
how the
Security
Council can
best monitor
the force it
authorizes.
There is also,
of course, the
question of
how the force
will be paid
for: from
assessed
contributions
by all
members, or
only
voluntary.
Then
even more
after the
second coup,
there is the
question of
the UN's
claimed
Human Rights
Due Diligence
Policy, which
Assistant
Secretary
General Ivan
Simonovic told
Inner City
Press will
apply in Mali.
The
main
implementer,
or blocker, of
the policy is
top UN
Peacekeeper
Herve Ladsous.
But he has
refused all
Press
questions
about how the
policy is
implemented,
which military
units his DPKO
works with,
what
it knows of
their abuses.
France
is
the one which
named
Ladsous to
fill "its"
position atop
UN Peacekeping
-- they might
want to ask
him to stop
undermining or
concealing
this claimed
Human Rights
Due Diligence
Policy. Watch
this
site.
, 
