UN
Security Chief
Says M23 Good
Record of
Safety, Syria
Shutdown Not
His
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 18 --
With the UN
Security
Council set to
meet
about Congo's
M23 rebels and
UN official
Susana
Malcorra's
recent
visit to Goma
to meet them,
Inner City
Press on
Tuesday asked
outgoing UN
Security chief
Gregory Starr
for his
Department's
assessment of
M23.
Starr
said, "We
actually have
a pretty good
record of our
humanitarians
staying safe
in areas that
M23 has
controlled."
Referring
to
late November,
Starr
continued that
"We were very
worried
about the
advance into
Goma, we moved
out about 50%
of our
humanitarians.
We made sure
that those
that stayed
has proper
protection
from MONUSCO."
This
last might be
seen as irony,
as MONUSCO did
nothing as M23
entered
Goma; the
group
voluntarily
left Goma
after a
political
process in
Kampala. While
they held
Goma,a UN
official told
The Guardian
that
M23
was looting
the Central
Bank - which
was later
denied by the
bank
manager, click
here for
follow up.
This
theme, of the
politicization
of security,
came up again
in Starr's
final press
encounter in
his position,
held Tuesday
at the UN
Foundation,
managed by
several UN
communications
officials.
Inner
City Press
asked Starr if
he and his
Department
made the
decision to
pull the UN
observers out
of Syria
mid-June. He
said no.
When asked
of Inner City
Press' reporting
that Observer
Mission chief
Robert
Mood, even
after the Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations
June 15 memo
was
filed with the
Security
Council,
was unaware
of it while at
the Hotel
Dama Rosa in
Damascus,
Starr said
that was
possible.
So
who made the
decision to
pull the UN
observers out
of Syria at
that
time? It was
and is now
more clear:
DPKO, led by
Herve Ladsous,
the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
that post. It
is apparently
an
uncomfortable
topic in the
UN,
particularly
to Ladsous:
the
politicization
of security,
and of
peacekeeping.
But
officials like
Starr are at
least willing
to answer
questions on
it.
Starr is
leaving the
UN, and
Ladsous, whose
refusal to
answer
questions
extends from
the Syria
shut-down to
the now 126
rapes in
Minova in the
DRC by the
army DPKO
partners with,
is apparently
staying.
Here
is
a French
language
profile of
Ladsous, from
Billets
d'Afrique,
even
before his
refusal to
answer on
Congolese army
rapes. Watch
this site.
Sad
footnote:
Inner City
Press also
asked Starr
if, as he
leaves, there
is any
movement on the case of
Louis Maxwell,
the UN
Security
officer
who protected
his colleagues
during an
attack in
Kabul, only to
the
shot by an
Afghan
national
soldier
who
subsequently
bragged of the
killing on TV.
"No,"
Starr said on
the record. We
hope to
have more on
this. But we
wish Starr
well.
, 
