Rich
Williamson,
Candid Critic
of UN
Peacekeeping
in Sudan,
Has Died: RIP
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 9 --
Rich
Williamson,
the US envoy
on Darfur in
2008, has
died. While at
the UN,
Williamson was
frank. On June
17,
2008, he came
to announce
that Khartoum
had been asked
for permission
to open up six
additional
routes for
humanitarian
convoys to
Darfur.
Inner
City Press had
asked if the
UN
peacekeepers
stationed in
El Fasher
should rather
be deployed to
protect at
least some of
the World Food
Program trucks
which have
been subject
to hijacking.
Williamson
agreed there
should be
"more activity
from the UN."
Video
here (old
UN Real
Media).
Down
in the UN
basement in a
conference
room that day,
Williamson
painted
a fuller
picture of UN
inaction, of
UNMIS
peacekeepers
sitting in
their base
while, he
said, 25 feet
away Sudanese
homes were
being
burned and
looted in
Abyei.
"We pay one
billion
dollars a year
for UNMIS,"
Williamson
said. And yet
they stood by
while 52,000
lives were
shattered and
nearly 100
dead.
UN
Photo:
Williamson and
Ban Ki-moon,
condolence to
be added if
issued
Six
weeks after
Williamson's
candor, the
Security
Council went
late
before
renewing the
mandate of the
mission in
Darfur,
complete with
high school
antics
captured here.
Williamson did
good work,
including
on Darfur.
Rest in Peace.
UN Photo:
Williamson
& Mia
Farrow at UN
Footnote:
Also
on June 17,
2008 but still
relevant
today, some of
French
Ambassador Jean-Maurice
Ripert's
sudden
standoffishness
with the
press during
the Security
Council trip
to Sudan and
Chad which
Inner
City Press
covered became
more
comprehensible.
Sources told
Inner
City Press
that it was
only on the
trip that
Ripert learned
that he
would not be
getting the
job of head of
UN
Peacekeeping.
At the last
moment, these
sources say,
the Ban
Ki-moon
administration
because
concerned that
Ripert's
constant
references to
Bernard
Kouchner might
create a
problem of
split loyalty.
And so France
was asked for
another name,
and forwarded
that of Alain
Le Roy.
Turns
out that Herve
Ladsous was
considered and
rejected at
that time, as
he was before
Jean-Marie
Guehenno was
selected. He
finally got
put
into the job
in 2011 after
the UN chose
then un-chose
Jerome
Bonnafont, and
Sarkozy
administration
jammed Ladsous
through. He
has
refused to
answer Press
questions, video here, UK
coverage here.
We'll have
more on this.
, 
