Three French
Names for
UN Peackeeping, Bermann,
Ripert or Lacroix,
Dumping
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Series
UNITED NATIONS,
February 8 – Who will run UN
Peacekeeping, and why? Two
days after Antonio Guterres
assumed office, Inner City
Press named
among the (French-only)
candidates Sylvie Bermann and
Jean-Maurice Ripert,
disclosing some history
with the latter.
We can now
name a third name in the mix,
according to Inner City Press
sources: Jean Pierre Lacroix,
who was previously
France's Deputy Permanent
Representative at the UN.
Amid calls
to reform UN Peacekeeping and
the selection process, or at
least make it more
transparency, it appears that
the same old game, in which
France which has owned the
Department four times in a row
merely submits three names so
that one can be selected is
being stuck to.
Back in
2012, Inner City Press exclusively
reported that Jerome
Bonnafont had been the choice
over three time loser Herve
Ladsous - until Bonnafont
bragged in India, where he was
posted, about getting the job.
Ban Ki-moon didn't like flashy
officials; France made him
take Ladsous and the rest,
decay in Peacekeeping, is
history. (The UN let Ladsous refuse to take Inner City Press'
questions, as is being accused
and derided now in DC).
As to
Ripert, in fairness, we can
now add to our recounting of
what Pakistan's ambassador
called his failure in that
country the detail that Ripert
told his then boss Lynn Pascoe,
I don't do floods, as
his reason for not going
there.
What
scandals await one of these
three? Well, as Inner City
Press has exclusively exposed,
the UN Department of
Peacekeeping Operations in
Central African Republic is
dumping waste negligently
leading to malaria. This is
what a UN
memo leaked to and
exclusively published on
February 3 by Inner City Press
has shown.
On February
7 Inner City Press put the
question to the UN Ambassador
of France, which has
controlled UN Peacekeeping
four times in a row not, and
prospectively a fifth. See
below.
Ambassador
Francois Delattre told Inner
City Press "I will take a
close look at it, it is a high
priority for us." Video here.
On
February 6, in a classic UN
noon briefing cover up,
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric when Inner City Press
asked about its February 3
exclusive said he wouldn't
speak to the authenticity of
the leaked memo but that the
UN is looking at possibilities
of moving or somehow improving
the dump.
Then the
memo showed up as "removed"
from Scribd -- NOT by Inner
City Press - so we uploaded it
to our own server, now via PDF here.
(Likewise,
eviction by Dujarric and the
UN's current head of
communications Cristina
Gallach has hindered Inner
City Press from putting up
video of Dujarric's evasion.
The high-speed cable in the
office Gallach evicted Inner
City Press from sits entirely
unused by the Egyptian state
media Akhbar al Yom she seeks
to give it to.)
For the UN
to try to cast doubt on the
leaked memo while seeking to
dodge its contents with vague
assurances of improvements is
typical.
The UN has
known about this dumping and
malaria for months. Who will
be help accountable?
The memo
states that "following
complaints by the local
population living in the
vicinity of the dumpsite" a UN
investigation found that the
dumpsite sludge dams breed
insects which result in
sickness. Eighty-one percent
of the UN's victims are
children, the memo says.
The
report, under "Community
Discontent," cites malaria. It
notes that when concerns were
raised, "police force was used
to quell the dissent."
Later on
February 3, an "anonymous" UN
Peacekeeping officials spuns
wire services about DPKO's
same-old claims to reform
itself, which include Ladsous
visiting the Haiti mission he
has mis-managed.
But this
CAR negligence will be a test
of the commitment to reform
expressed, among other places,
in the US Senate confirmation
hearings. How can Ladsous (or
MINUSCA as constituted) remain
in place? How can France keep
this UN Department?
]
By the same
token, how could corrupt
censor Cristina Gallach remain
in the UN system, in a post
other than Public Information
of which she had made a
mockery? We'll have more on
this.
Inner City
Press has long questioned
Ladsous, for example about his
linking of sexual exploitation
and abuse by peacekeepers to
"R&R" or rest and
recreation, here.
Ladsous replies,
"I don't answer your
questions, Mister."
Now under
new UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, many are
interested who will replace
Ladsous. While other Under
Secretary General posts like
Cristina Gallach's atop the
Department of Public
Information are now subject to
public
vacancy notices, DPKO
has not. Why not? Inner City
Press asked, but UN holdeover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
didn't answer.
Sources
will Inner City Press France
is trying to hold onto DPKO
for the fifth time in a row,
albeit with a women, on
information and belief Sylvie
Bermann, since 2014 France's
ambassador in London. Five
times in a row? Given this
kind of mismanagement, in a
former French colony?
Exclusive:
UN Waste In Dump Caused Malaria in
Central African Republic, Report
Leaked to Inner City Press S...
by Matthew
Russell Lee on Scribd
This
concerned the Kolongo dumpsite
in Bangui. Related memos refer
to the UN in Mali as well.
Tellingly,
this UN memo warns of
litigation, "taking into
account lessons learned in the
Haiti case." But was did the
UN learn?
Ban
Ki-moon, who after leaving the
UN on January 1 has found his
campaign for South Korea's
Presidency implode amid
corruption charges, dodged
legal papers about Haiti for
years. In his last month he
promised millions but so far
less than $2 million have been
raised, more than half of it
blood money from South Korea.
In the
Central African Republic, UN
peacekeepers have been accused
of sexual abuse, including of
minors. The UN itself recently
accused 25 Burundian
peacekeepers of sexual
exploitation and abuse, but UN
Peacekeeping chief Herve
Ladsous, the fourth French
national in a row to hold the
position, determined to
continue to pay the Pierre
Nkurunziza government for 800
more troops.
New UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres is considering who
will replace Ladsous. He
should consider and act on
this as well.
UN
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
while declining to explain
Ladsous' reasoning, recent
answered only two and a half
of 22 questions Inner City
Press posed in writing. UN
Department of Public
Information chief Cristina
Gallach evicted Inner City
Press from its UN office without
due process, confining
it still to minders to cover
the General Assembly.
The UN
reflexively covers up its
abuses. Even after killing
10,000 people with cholera in
Haiti, these practices
continue in the Central
African Republic.
Other
memos have been leaked to
Inner City Press. Meanwhile
even the UN's Office of the
High Commissioner for Human
Rights, rather than dealing
with the substance of a UN
Ethics Office memo Inner City
Press published,
has Tweeted a press release
saying it is all
unsubstantiated. Really? The
UN must be reformed.
***
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