UNITED
NATIONS, May
26 -- How does
the UN system
deal with
Africa? Is its
approach
coordinated?
At the
African Union
events in the
past two
days,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon met
with three
foreign
ministers,
of Mauritania
as well as
Norway and the
US' John
Kerry. Click
here
for Inner City
Press story
on these.
Meanwhile
UN
Development
Program
administrator
Helen Clark
met with at
least
two African
heads of state
with whom it
appears Ban
Ki-moon didn't
meet: Ghana's
John Dramani
Mahama and Chad's
Idriss Deby.
(Clark's
UNDP does not
issue Ban-like
read-outs of
such meetings,
only tweets of
140 characters
including
photos, no
replies to mentions.
Nor does Clark
do press
conferences in
New York, as
Inner City
Press has
repeatedly
requested - we'll have more on this.)
At
least to Deby,
there are
things Ban
should have
had to say:
Deby's
recent
invitation to
and reception
of
International
Criminal Court
indictee Omar
al Bashir of
Sudan, and the
perhaps
related
reports of
Chad's Army
attack
anti-Bashir
rebels in
Darfur. (The
UN, typically,
went late to
where that was
reported, and
then reported
they say
nothing: click
here for
Herve Ladsous'
UN Peacekeeping's
response
to Inner City
Press.)
In
all this,
where was
Ban's supposed
Special
Adviser on
Africa Maged
Abdelaziz? To
the
consternation
of the African
Group of
states at the
UN, Ban left
that post
vacant or
filled only
half time for
years -
then gave it
to Egypt's
Maged
Abdelaziz,
long time
Mubarak
ambassador
to the UN,
after Mubarak
fell.
A
Google
News search
find no
mention of
Maged
Abdelaziz in
the last 30
days, not in
Addis Ababa
nor anywhere
else.
Meanwhile a UN webpage
for the Office
of the Special
Adviser on
Africa, under
OSAA Press
Coverage, has
nothing since
January 2011,
more than two
years ago.
Is
this the UN
system's
approach to
Africa? What
does it say?
Watch this
site.
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