UN's
Landgren
Spoke of Withholding from Nepal Equipment that India Gave
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 14 -- After UN envoy Karin Landgren told the UN
Security Council earlier this month that the “monitoring equipment”
could not be left in Nepal
without an agreement, Inner City Press
repeatedly asked the UN for clarification. None came.
Now
it emerges
that the equipment was given by India, and that India has told Nepal
it can keep it. The UN has nothing to say, contrary to Landgren's
speech to the Security Council, which has been widely criticized in
Nepal.
Inner
City Press
also repeatedly asked the UN why Secretary General Ban Ki-moon jumped
the gun and named Landgren as his next envoy to Burundi on December
31, while the parties in Nepal still had two weeks in which they
might have made a joint request for the UN Mission in Nepal to stay.
While
the UN
answered that Landgren would not begin in Burundi as Charles Petrie's
replacement until January 15, that did not answer the question. Why
did Ban jump the gun and telegraph the UN's unwillingness to stay in
Nepal, even if both parties asked?
A
Security Council
sources tells Inner City Press that the UN was just “sick of
Nepal,” that the parties weren't negotiating and solving things.
But other say this is also true to some extent in Cyprus, the Former
Yuguslav Republic of Macedonia, the Middle East and elsewere from
which the UN doesn't leave. The UN has been asked to leave Cote
d'Ivoire, and hasn't.
So why the
flight from and flubs in Nepal?
Watch this site.
Landgren in the Council, Indian equipment not shown
From
the UN's
January
13 transcript
Inner
City
Press: since there’s no noon briefing tomorrow, I just wanted
to ask — one is Nepal, and the pullout of the UNMIN [United Nations
Mission in Nepal] mission. There had been some discussion of leaving
behind the monitoring equipment — either on a loan basis, or —
what’s going to actually happen with the equipment on the 15th,
given that that’s the deadline?
Spokesperson:
I’ll check on both of them for you, Matthew.
But
at close of
business the next day January 14, no answer had been provided. Watch
this site.
* * *
At
UN,
Nepal
Opposition Letter Delayed & Ignored, Landgren to Burundi
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January
5 -- Two weeks before the mandate of the UN Mission
in Nepal was set to expire, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named
UNMIN chief Karin Landgren as his representative to Burundi.
This
telegraphed
that
the
UN would ignore the plea by the Nepali opposition that the
UN stay on. On January 3, Inner City Press e-mailed Ms. Landgren
some
simple questions, asking her
“to
state your current role in Burundi. Charles Petrie told me he was
leaving November 1, then December 31. Are you currently handling both
Nepal and Burundi? Who is currently in charge of UNMIN? And when will
you arrive in Burundi? Who is in charge there right now?”
There
was
no
answer, so Inner City Press sought to ask the question at the UN's
noon briefing on January 4. Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky
pointedly did not allow the question, walking about of the room.
On
January 5,
Inner City Press again tried to ask Nesirky, finally blurting out,
“Why did Ban Ki-moon move Karin Landgren to Burundi?” Nesirky
again refused to answer, using the time instead to say that the
Security Council was meeting about Nepal later in the day, and
claiming that there was no time for him to answer, since the Bosnian
president of the Council was about to begin. (The Bosnian briefing
did not start for at least another ten minutes).
Nevertheless,
after
the
repeated refusal to answer the Nepal questions, Nesirky's
office sent this:
From:
UN
Spokesperson
- Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date:
Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 12:55 PM
Subject:
Your question on Karin Landgren
To:
Inner City Press
Ms.
Karin
Landgren
was named by the Secretary-General on 31st December to
be the new SRSG in Burundi. She remains currently in charge of our
mission in Nepal, UNMIN, and will continue there through the
scheduled end of its mandate on 15 January. She will take up
responsibilities in Burundi soon thereafter. Mr. Charles Petrie left
Burundi on 26 December. Until the arrival of Ms. Landgren, the Chief
of Staff of BINUB in Bujumbura has been designated as Officer in
Charge.
The
question
remains, why so publicly pull Landgren from Nepal even as the
opposition was calling for the UN to stay, and writing to the
Security Council to make that request?
While
Nesirky's
Office
told Inner City Press that the letter was received on January
3, on January 4 a Permanent Five member of the Council's Permanent
Representative told Inner City Press that the letter had not been
circulated. That took place on the morning of January 5. When Inner
City Press asked this month's Council president about the letter at
the stakeout, after he read a short press statement, the President
refused to answer. Video here.
It
appears that
because Charles Petrie was leaving Burundi on December 26 -- after
quitting
on November 1 -- the UN felt a need to name a replacement as of
December 31. This reflects, using a sports team metaphor, how
shallow the UN's bench of diplomats
is: there was apparently no one else to take over in Burundi.
Watch this site.
Footnote: India's
ambassador, on his way into the Council on January 4, told Inner City
Press that UNMIS was "over... wind up." The Council President told
Inner City Press on January 5 that most on the Council thought the
Mission should end. Another Council diplomat explained: for five years,
no progress, but they kept asking us to stay. Now we are leaving. "Good
riddance."
