By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 20 -
When Jose
Ramos Horta
took questions
on November 20
about the UN
Peacekeeping
review panel
he now chairs,
he initially
said that the
UN bringing
cholera to
Haiti was
beyond the
panel's
mandate.
When
Inner City
Press was able
to ask him a
question, it
was to
challenge
this. How
could more
than 8,000
people killed,
and the
continuing
impact on the
UN's
credibility,
be beyond the
mandate of
this panel? Video here.
Ramos
Horta replied
that, on
reflection, he
would raise
the issue of
cholera in
Haiti to the
panel's
members, which
now include
Sri Lankan
former UN
official
Radhika
Coomaraswamy
as well.
Inner
City Press
also asked
about the
cover-up
scandals
swirling
around UN
Peacekeeping,
about rapes
and more in
Darfur. Ramos
Horta replied
about abuses
by
peacekeepers
in Timor
Leste, that
there must be
accountability
(he praised
Sergio de
Mello in this
respect.)
UN
Peacekeeping
has become
subject, under
Herve Ladsous,
to mounting
questions
about its
operations,
from crashed
drones,
selective
“neutralization”
of some rebels
groups and not
others, like
the FDLR in
the DR Congo, covering
up attacks in
Darfur and lack of accountability
for
negligently
introducing
cholera to
Haiti, to
name just a
few.
While
Ladsous refuses and even
blocks Press
questions about these topics, recently
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon has
taken to
saying that a
major
“external”
panel will be
set up to
review the
issues. On
Friday,
October 31,
Ban’s
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric
announced the
14-member
panel, to be
chaired by
Ramos-Horta.
In a
run-on
sentence, Ban
listed the
panel’s
topics: “the
changing
nature of
conflict,
evolving
mandates, good
offices and
peace-building
challenges,
managerial and
administrative
arrangements,
planning,
partnerships,
human rights
and protection
of civilians,
uniformed
capabilities
for
peacekeeping
operations and
performance.”
Inner
City Press
asked Dujarric
about a word
NOT in the
list: drones.
Earlier on
October 31 in
the UN General
Assembly’s
Fourth
Committee, the
representative
of Ecuador
said that UN
Peacekeeping’s
use of drones
should be
subject to
review by the
General
Assembly’s
C-34
Committee:
that is, by
member states.
(Ladsous
evaded the
C-34, then
deployed more
drones than
he’d mentioned
to the
Security
Council, and
won’t answer
on the reasons
behind the
crashes; DRC
envoy Martin
Kobler told
Inner City
Press it was
due to “wind.”)
Dujarric
cut the
question off,
saying that it
was “too
granular” and
that drones
might fall —
as one did in
DRC — under
“the changing
nature of
conflict.”
But the
question is,
should UN
Peacekeeping
and Ladsous be
subject only
to review by a
panel picked
by Ban
Ki-moon, or by
the member
states?
Dujarric said
Ban’s panel’s
report will go
the the
General
Assembly.
It is
called an
“external”
panel, but
included not
only a number
of long-time
insiders, but
even the
current
Under-Secretary-General
for Field
Support,
Ameerah Haq.
This reporter
asked Dujarric
if this meant
that Haq is
leaving, and
Dujarric said
yes. The Free
UN Coalition
for Access opines:
she is the
wrong one to
be leaving.
Strikingly,
only TWO of
Ban’s Panel’s
14 members are
from Africa,
where the vast
majority of UN
Peacekeepers
are deployed.
These members
are from Ghana
and Tunisia,
not from
countries with
UN Missions
like DRC,
Mali, Cote
d’Ivoire,
Central
African
Republic if
not to say
Liberia, where
Ladsous is
said to be
planning
“emergency
responses”
with a
government
that has
quarantined
whole
neighborhoods
like West
Point in
Monrovia.
Recently
during the
Security
Council
proceeding to
renew the
mandate of the
mission in
Haiti, many
ambassadors
from Latin
America said
Troop
Contributing
Countries
weren’t
sufficiently
consulted;
Argentina said
it would not
participate in
certain
policing or
repression
activities.
Will that be
reviewed?
We’ll have
more on this.
Beyond
Ramos-Horta,
the Panel’s
members
include Jean
Arnault of
France — some
wonder if he’s
there to
protect
Ladsous —
Abhijit Guha
of India,
Ameerah Haq of
Bangladesh,
Andrew Hughes
of Australia,
Wang Xuexian
of China,
Hilde Johnson
of Norway
after a
troubled stint
in South
Sudan,
Henrietta Joy
Abena Nyarko
Mensa-Bonsu of
Ghana,
Floriano
Peixoto Vieira
Neto of
Brazil, Bruce
Jones of
Canada,
Youssef
Mahmoud of
Tunisia, B.
Lynn Pascoe of
the US, whom
Inner City
Press reported
was in the mix
to replace
Alexander
Downer as UN
envoy to
Cyprus but was
said to be
blocked from
getting it,
Alexander
Ilitchev of
Russia and Ian
Martin of the
UK, who
returned to
the UN to mull
mediation
after starting
the ill-fated
UN Mission in
Libya.
Martin’s
previous Board
of Inquiry
report on
bombing in
Gaza in 2009,
Ban Ki-moon
undercut with
a
cover-letter.
We’ll have
more on this,
too.
, 
