As
France Praises Cameroon's
Biya, 32 Years in Power, Time
to Relinquish UNSC Pen on
Burundi
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 14 -- In the UN Security
Council, France along with
sometime-member Mexico has
proposed a voluntary relinquishing
of the veto in cases of mass
atrocity. But France maintains
itself as Security Council
penholder, that is drafter, on
many of its historic colonies
in Africa, often to the
detriment of the citizens of
these countries. Inner City
Press and the Free
UN Coalition for Access
ask, what about a voluntary -
or if necessary involuntary -
relinquishing of Security
Council penholder status? Even
beyond the allegations that
French peacekeepers sexually
exploited and abused children
in the Central African
Republic, on which France holds
the pen while controlling UN Peacekeeping
for twenty years and counting,
compare Burundi to Cameroon.
Cameroon's
Paul Biya has held power for
32 years, since Ronald Reagan.
He has cut off the Internet to
the country's Anglophone areas
for 56 days and counting. Yet
French Ambassador Gilles
Thibault this month congratulated
Biya for his treatment of the
areas, just after the Security
Council visited and stayed
quiet. So, even on this ground
alone, how can France hold the
Council's pen on Burundi,
where the third and possible
fourth term of Pierre Nkurunziza
is a major issue? It's time
for France to relinquish the
pen.
Likewise, if the UN Security
Council issues a Press
Statement but the UN
Spokesperson doesn't email it
to the Press, and the
Council's penholder doesn't
even tweet it, does it make a
sound? On Burundi that is the
question, where a belated
March 13 Council Press
Statement was tweeted first by
Sweden, then Japan, then the
Council's President for March,
the UK - but never that day by
France. As Inner City Press
reported, earlier on March 13
to the UN Peacebuilding
meeting on Burundi, France did
not send its number 1 or 2
Ambassador. Nor did the UN's
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, it seems, email out
the Council Press Statement.
There are echoes here of his non-answers
on Cameroon's abuses including
Internet cut-off.
When the
Burundi configuration of the
UN Peacekeeping Commission met
on March 13, France spoke but
not through its top Ambassador
Francois Delattre or even his
deputy Alexis Lamek. It again
called to mind France's
approach in Cameroon, where
its ambassador Thibault last
week congratulated
Paul Biya for a non-existent
dialogue with the Anglophone
areas. Why isn't at least UN
Peacekeeping working on these
areas, where the Internet has
been cut off by the government
for 56 days and counting?
Watch this site.
UN Peacekeeping
is training the Burundi
security forces in how to use
drones; Army spokesman Gaspard
Baratuza -- himself
repatriated from the UN
Mission in the Central African
Republic after Inner City
Press questions (credited on
AllAfrica.com here)
bragged about it and refused
to answer about Burundi's use
of drones.
So Inner
City Press on February 24
asked UN Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric why Herve Ladsous' UN
is training this already
problematic Burundi contingent
in the use of drones. Video
here from 25:50.
Dujarric didn't substantively
respond to that question and
on Inner City Press next
question about Ladsous,
Dujarric ran off the podium
and out of the room. UN DPI
under Cristina Gallach
produced a video with the
audio of the question cut, see
here
at end.
Not only
Gallach, whose post's
advertisement was extended
from March 6 to March 20, but
Dujarric who is trying to hold
on while refusing to answer
questions, ill-serve new
Secretary General Antonio
Gutteres.
Likewise an
attempt by Dujarric, who has
become increasing abusive in
defending corruption under Ban
Ki-moon, to stay on will
undermine the UN. Watch this
site.
Meanwhile at the
UN on March 20, the UN's lead
evicter of the Press Cristina
Gallach and others will celebrate the Day of Francophonie. More
like Francophony, at least as
regards the Thibault - Biya
meeting. We'll have more on
this.
Inner City Press asked both
the International Monetary
Fund and the UN Security
Council's president about the
crisis in Cameroon's
Anglophone areas on March 9
and heard that while the IMF
acknowledges the financial
risk, the Security Council
does not see it as a threat to
international peace and
security. But the UN's
Resident Coordinator Najat
Rochdi has said nothing about
the crisis, and blocks
on Twitter the
Press which asks about it. Is
the UN system failing, in its
new Secretary General's
promise of increased
preventative diplomacy?
When the
IMF's spokesperson Gerry Rice
took questions on March 9,
Inner City Press asked about
Cameroon, specifically the
crackdown in the northwest and
southwest of the country.
Inner City Press asked, "On
Cameroon, after the mission
led by Corinne Delechat, what
is the status of talks for a
program, and since the IMF
cited “civil unrest in the
neighboring Central African
Republic,” please state the
IMF's awareness of civil
unrest and arrests in
Northwest and Southwest
Cameroon, also known as the
Anglophone areas, and their
impact." Rice read out the
question and then said, among
other things, that the risk
factors for 2017 include a
continuation of the "social
and political events" in the
"so-called Anglophone" areas
of Cameroon. Interim
video here. On IMF
site, here,
from 34:56. IMF
transcript below.
But a few
hours later when Inner City
Press asked the month's UN
Security Council president
Matthew Rycroft of the UK, who
had just been in Cameroon,
about the crisis, he said it
is not a threat to
international peace and
security, though he did say,
untranscribed, that this is
kept under review - as should
France's status as penholder
on Burundi, CAR and elsewhere.
On January 4, Inner City Press
asked about the Security
Council's (lack of) Follow
through on Burundi, to
Ambassador Delattre of France,
the "penholder" on Burundi. Tweeted
video here.
More
here.
***
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