To
"Dismantle"
Syria Mission,
Ladsous Had
Planes Waiting
in Beirut,
-Sources
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
26 -- Even
before UN
Peacekeeping
boss Herve
Ladsous
sent half of
the UN's Syria
observers home
this week amid
anonymous
quotes to
Agence France
Presse that,
"they will not
come back,"
he had
prepared a
total pullout
and
dismantling,
sources told
Inner
City Press
late Thursday.
Well
placed sources
in the
Security
Council and
Secretariat
described UN
Peacekeeping
mission planes
being moved to
Beirut to wait
to remove
all of the
observers.
When on July
20 the Security
Council
unanimously
extended the
UNSMIS
observers'
mission for
thirty days,
this planned
total pullout
was no longer
possible.
But
mere days
later, Ladsous
directed half
of the
observers to
leave the
county. While
Ladsous
and his
spokesman are,
as they put
it, "on the
record" that
they will not
answer any
Inner City
Press
questions,
other pro-DPKO
sources argue
that even if
strange,
Ladsous
was entitled,
in the name of
Ban Ki-moon,
to order this
reduction.
But
again, compare
it to when
UNMIS in Sudan
expired: the
UN took weeks
and months to
pull out, even
while the
Sudanese
government
wanted
them all to
leave. Here,
the Syrian
government has
not asked
UNSMIS
to leave.
Ladsous'
rush
to get out of
Syria and "not
come back" is
a political
one, consonant
with France's
and some
others'
position on
the July 20
resolution but
not its letter
and spirit.
As
one Security
Council member
put it to
Inner City
Press, "that
is
not for
Ladsous to
decide,
whether they
will come
back. There is
a
report to be
written -- by
the way, where
has Ladsous
put the UNSMIS
report on
Houla? And
then it's up
to the
Security
Council to
consider
it."
Inner
City Press at
the UN noon
briefing on
Wednesday
asked for more
information
about Ladsous
sending the
observers
home, and even
on how
the
announcement
was
distributed.
"By DPKO,"
said Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey.
But
since DPKO
pointedly did
not send the
transcript of
Ladsous' and
Babacar Gaye's
to all UN
correspondents
who actively
report on
Syria,
Inner City
Press asked
Del Buey why
his Office
routinely
re-sent out
the
announcements
of Joint
Special Envoy
Kofi Annan and
his spokesman
Ahmad Fawzi,
but does not
do so with the
more
"selective"
DPKO of Herve
Ladsous?
What
do Ban
Ki-moon, his
deputy and
chief of staff
think of and
do about
Ladsous, his
acts and
stonewalling?
Watch this
site.
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