On
Syria,
As Ban
Proposes 300
for 3 Months,
"Weakness of
UN
Leadership"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 18, updated
-- It was late
on April 18
when UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
returned from
a junket to
Europe and
turned in
his Syria
proposal to
the Security
Council, for a
three month
mission
of 300
observers.
Ban
demands
"immediate
freedom of
movement" for
#UN - but he
made no such
demand in
Western
Sahara.
Ban wants a
"Chief
Military
Observer at
the rank of
Major-General"
- could
this mean the
moody Robert
Mood, who fled
Damascus
leading to
criticism by
Russia?
Ban talks
about the
about
"principles of
UN
peacekeeping
regarding
selection of
personnel" but
his
Secretariat
limited
invitations to
only some
potential
Troop
Contributing
Countries.
Questions
on April 19
would not be
taken by Ban's
chief of
peacekeeping
Herve
Ladsous, who
tellingly
found himself
in former
French colony
Cote
d'Ivoire, but
by Ban's
predecessor
(now Syria
envoy) Kofi
Annan's
head of
peacekeeping
Jean-Marie
Guehenno.
In
front of a
closed door
meeting for
Troop
Contribution
Countries in
the UN's
North Lawn
building only
covered by
Inner City
Press earlier
in the
week, a well
placed
diplomat said
the make up of
the Syria team
shows
"the weakness
of current UN
leadership."
The
next day Inner
City Press
asked Ban's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo del
Buey:
Inner
City
Press: there
was a meeting
yesterday in
the North Lawn
of the,
by DPKO,
Office of
Military
Affairs,
informal TCC
meeting,
advance
team to Syria,
and it seemed,
I was told
that, in fact,
only some
countries were
invited, some
weren’t
invited. And I
wanted to
know, since
this was a,
you know,
public meeting
in a public
building,
what’s the
criteria?
Maybe you
either have
this now, or
can get, how
does DPKO
decide which
countries to
even invite to
such
a briefing? It
was a large…
it was done in
a large
conference
room; at least
40 countries
were invited,
but some were
not invited. I
was also told
the
representative
of Syria,
probably not
invited,
was inside the
room. So, I
wanted to
know, I want
to get a
readout
from you about
how these
countries were
invited and
whether, in
fact,
DPKO is giving
in to the
Syrian request
that it get to
choose the
nationality of
observers sent
to the
country.
Deputy
Spokesperson
Del Buey: We
can try and
find out from
DPKO.
But
in 36 hours
after, no
answers were
provided.
Typical. Watch
this site.
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