At
UN,
Quotes of
Peacekeepers
to Syria Point
to DPKO Chief
&
His Country's
PR?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 30 --
Amid
complaints
that Kofi
Annan's
mission to
the Syria is
meant to keep
Assad in
power, the UN
has repeatedly
refused to
answer Press
questions
about who is
part of
Annan's team
or whether the
UN has any
role in
selecting or
vetting them.
Now
there are
quotes from a
self-described
senior Western
Security
Council
diplomat
that the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
(DPKO) is
sending
an advance
team to Syria,
with an eye to
shifting some
250 observers
from its UN
Peacekeeping
Missions
UNIFIL in
Lebanon and
UNDOF in the
Golan.
Because
this seems
a strange way
for the UN to
be
communicating,
Inner City
Press on
March 30 asked
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey to
confirm these
DPKO moves,
and to state
whether
the chief of
DPKO is
sharing such
information
with all 15
Security
Council
members or
other the
Permanent
Representative
of his own
country, which
has appointed
the last four
Under
Secretaries
General
for
Peacekeeping
in a row.
Del
Buey paused
and then told
Inner City
Press to ask
the Kofi Annan
team: "There
are reports
that are
coming from
leaks or
reported leaks
from the
Council... I
believe that
Mr. Annan is
coordinating
the efforts in
Syria and I
would leave it
to his
spokesman to
comment on
that. "
While
Annan's
spokesman
Ahmad Fawzi
has for
example been
willing to confirm
that
Annan recently
gave a six
month UN
contract to
Martin
Griffiths,
who
resigned from
his last job
in Geneva amid
an
embezzlement
scandal,
this is a
question about
UN DPKO and
its chief, Herve "The
Drone"
Ladsous, so
named because
he had
proposed the
use of
drones and
even the
interception
of
communications,
without
specifying if
the
information
collected
would go to
all member
states
or only his
own.
Ladsous
pointedly
refuses to
answer
questions
about his
drone
proposal, or
other
questions
about
peacekeeping,
in Haiti and
South Sudan.
As first
reported by
Inner City
Press, when
Annan
conducted
meetings at
the UN with
diplomats from
among others
Syria, China
and Iran, he
then met with
Ladsous, the
only one of
the meetings
the Press was
not allowed to
photograph.
Friday
Inner City
Press
asked Del
Buey, what is
Ban Ki-moon's
role in all
this? Has Ban,
as
reported,
lost control?
Del
Buey said that
Ban and the
Arab League
appointed
Annan, but
Annan takes it
from
there: "Mr
Kofi Annan is
managing, is
directing, is
responsible
for the peace
process in
Syria."
Pro-Assad
media, it
should be
noted,
describe Annan
as the
"UN" envoy,
and as Inner
City Press
first
reported,
Annan's
Arab League
selected
deputy Nassar
El-Kidwa has
not been allow
into
Syria.
El-Kidwa
is in
Istanbul,
meeting with
the opposition
and Friends of
Syria.
Kofi
Annan, not
surprisingly,
has not gone:
his moves are
not favorably
viewed by the
opposition.
Intrigue
and
secrecy in
mediation is
one thing. But
from a UN
peacekeeping
chief
and his
country's
Permanent
Representative,
they may be
quite another.
Watch this
site.
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