On
W. Sahara, As
Mendez Favors
Ongoing Rights
Monitoring,
Ladsous'
Silence
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 23 --
After the UN's
Special
Rapporteur on
Torture
Juan Mendez
briefed the
General
Assembly's
Third
Committee on
Tuesday
morning, Inner
City Press
asked him
about his
September
visit to
Morocco and
Western
Sahara, and if
he believes
the UN mission
MINURSO
should have a
human rights
component.
Mendez
replied that
in Western
Sahara, and in
Morocco, he
found evidence
of
mistreatment
in
interrogation,
especially in
connection
with
demonstrations
and when there
is a sense
that national
security is
involved.
Alluding
to
UN Security
Council
discussions,
he said he
heard about it
in
Layoune. "In
my experience,
permanent
monitoring is
always more
helpful that
once in a
lifetime"
visits. Should
it be by
MINURSO
or some other
entity? He
said he is
studying that.
In
the Security
Council debate
about MINURSO,
not only
Morocco but
France opposed
any human
rights
component to
MINURSO. Some
say that
at least
during
Morocco's
remaining 14
months on the
Security
Council, the
addition of
such a
component is
unlikely. But
France's
seat on the
Council is,
like four
others',
Permanent.
The
supervisor of
the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations and
thus
ultimately of
MINURSO is
Herve Ladsous,
who without
any "insulting
innuendo" is
not only
French but has
represented
France in the
Security
Council as its
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
in and around
1994.
Earlier
in
October Inner
City Press
received
contacts from
Morocco asking
about Ladsous'
visit to that
country,
saying "there
was a near
total
blackout, we
didn't even
know Ladsous
was there!"
When
Ladsous held
what was
called a press
conference on
October 22, he
did
not mention
his Western
Sahara trip in
his opening
statement --
there
was much on
Mali, where
France now
says it will
send drones,
and on
Syria.
In
what was
called the
question and
answer
session,
Ladsous
refused to
answer any
Inner City
Press
question,
saying "Mister
I told you
already that I
would answer
your questions
when you stop
making
insulting
insinuations
about me."
But
it is not an
insinuation to
note France's
position on
Western Sahara
and no human
rights
component in
MINURSO, to
note that
Ladsous was
the Deputy
Permanent
Representative
of France, and
to expect him
to
answer
questions for
example about
his views on
the
peacekeeping
mission in
Western
Sahara.
Just
for
comparison,
the current
head of the
Department of
Political
Affairs
Jeffrey
Feltman has
answered
questions
about possible
conflicts of
interest due
to his prior
service in the
US State
Department.
Ibrahim
Gambari,
who had that
DPA job and
worked under
or in DPKO,
has
answered
questions
about any
connection
between his
former roles
in
Nigeria's
foreign
service and
his UN and
African Union
work.
So
what is
different
about Herve
Ladsous? As
some now
surmise, could
his
thin-skinned
refusal to
answer Press
questions, and
characterization
of
questions as
"insulting
insinuations,"
be indicative
of
actual
conflicts of
interest of
the type
Feltman and
Gambari took
questions on
and addressed,
in their
fashion? Watch
this site.
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