As
ECOWAS Says
3300 Troops to
Mali, Prodi
Won't Say How
Pay, Sanogo
Role?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 13 --
Days after the
West African
grouping
ECOWAS
announced
plans to send
3,300 troops
to Mali, Inner
City Press
asked
the UN's Mali
and Sahel
envoy Romano
Prodi how he
thinks this
should
be funded: as
a UN
Peacekeeping
or Special
Political
Mission? As an
African Union
mission
"supported"
and funded by
the UN?
Prodi
was previously
paid by the UN
to write a
report its
relations with
the African
Union. Now he
is being paid,
at
the rate of an
Under
Secretary
General, to
work from his
home in Italy
on this
problem.
But
he did not
answer the
specific
question on
this impending
--
according to
ECOWAS and
others --
mission. Inner
City Press
also
asked about
his visit to
non ECOWAS
member
Algeria, and
Prodi latched
onto that part
of the
question.
Prodi
said officials
in Algeria are
"conscious" of
the threat of
terrorism and
its spread.
But of course.
But do they
propose
solution
different than
ECOWAS and
France? This
he did not
answer. He
said he
does not shake
hands with
those in
control in
northern Mali,
but
sends them
"signals."
From Italy?
One
also wanted to
ask, what is
the role in
Mali today of
coup leader
Sanogo? There
was much talk
at the UN
about a
contemporaneous
coup,
in Guinea
Bissau. But
since then the
coup leaders
or
beneficiaries
seem to be
more and more
accepted,
including by
the United
States.
Does the UN
deal with
Sanogo? Does
ECOWAS? Watch
this site.
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