At UN,
As Ban Puts
Welsh on R2P,
Sidestepping
Genocide, Cote
d'Ivoire,
Ladsous
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
12, updated
July 17 --
After the
invocation of
Responsibility
to Protect to
bomb Libya
until Gaddafi
was killed,
among UN
member states
in the General
Assembly the controversy
over “R2P”
only grew.
Outgoing
UN
Special
Adviser on R2P
Edward Luck
told Inner
City Press he
was only paid
one dollar a
year “and some
say I'm not
worth it.” For
more than a
year he was
not replaced.
But at
the UN noon
briefing on
Friday,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
announced that
Jennifer Welsh
of Canada
would succeed
Luck, adding
that she would
“work under
the overall
guidance of
Mr. Adama
Dieng, the
Secretary-General’s
Special
Adviser on the
Prevention of
Genocide, to
further the
conceptual,
political,
institutional
and
operational
development of
the
responsibility
to protect
concept, as
set out by the
General
Assembly in
paragraphs 138
and 139 of the
2005 World
Summit Outcome
document.”
Inner
City Press
immediately
asked if Welsh
will be paid,
and if so how
the
controversy
about whether
the R2P
mandate was
agreed to and
funded had
been addressed
by Ban
Ki-moon.
Nesirky
said
to look at the
whole
announcement.
But even
there, on the
fly on laptop,
the question
was not
directly
answered by
the
announcement.
Inner City
Press asked if
the phrase “
under the
overall
guidance” of
Dieng meant
that R2P is
now a sub-set
of the
Prevention of
Genocide. It
is still not
clear.
Nesirky
gave
as his example
of successful
Responsibility
to Protect the
case of Cote
d'Ivoire.
Many would
disagree:
while UN
Peacekeeping,
now run four
times in a row
by a Frenchman
most recently
Herve Ladsous,
and the French
“Licorne”
mission
intervened,
perceived
supporters of
Laurent Gbagbo
were killed,
for example in
Douekoue and
Nahibly, in
the latter
case with UN
peacekeepers
standing by.
There
was no
accountability;
in fact, after
UN envoy Bert
Koenders
essentially
covered up the
UN's deed and
omissions in
Nahibly, he
was rewarded
with the
higher profile
posting atop
Ladsous'
mission in
Mali. Somebody
is being
protected -
but who?
It
seems clear
that
supporters of
R2P think that
they are on
the side of
the angels,
and not
without some
reason. But in
the UN system,
slipping in
Assistant
Secretary
Generals,
especially if
they are paid
-- this has
not been
answered --
should be run
through the
member states,
the General
Assembly and
the Fifth
Committee.
If
not, how can
the UN preach
rule of law?
Then again,
how can it
preach it
after so
tersely
dismissing
claims it
brought
cholera to
Haiti? And
not answering
on its (and Ladsous')
support to
units of the
Congolese Army
depicted in
the Group
of Experts
report the
full text
of which Inner
City Press exclusively
put
online on June
29? How is
this
consistent
with
Responsibility
to Protect?
Watch this
site.
Update
of July 17:
This came in:
From:
UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at] un.org
Date: Wed, Jul
17, 2013 at
4:59 PM
Subject: Your
question on
Ms. Jennifer
Welsh
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
Further to
your recent
question on
Ms. Jennifer
Welsh, her
contract is
indeed a
one-dollar-a-year
contract.
, 
