On W. Africa Drugs, UN Makes Excuses for Guinea's Conte and CNDD Coup Leaders, No Shame

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/undrug1guinea070809.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 8 -- As the UN system brags about its work against illicit drug trafficking in West Africa, questions have arisen about the UN's engagement with the past and present regimes in Guinea. When previous president-until-death Lansana Conte died in December 2008, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a laudatory statement about Conte's rule.

Soon thereafter, it emerged that Conte's family used diplomatic privileges to traffic massive quantities of drugs. On July 8, Inner City Press asked Ban's Special Representative for West Africa Said Djinnit and UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa about their dealings with Conte and the CNDD military coup leaders who have succeeded him, in light of Ban's statements against Honduras' coup leaders. Video here, from Minute 53:03.

Mr. Djinnit at first said he didn't understand the question, and then emphasized that he dealt more with Guinea's prime minister than with Mr. Conte, who he said was sick. Djinnit confirmed that he engages with the coup leader CNDD president, who Djinnit says is "committed to deal" with drugs, although he said the UN "has concerns about how it is being done." Video here, from Minute 54:08.

Mr. Costa recounted telling Lansana Conte about the drug trafficking of Conte's son, and then getting a call three hours later from Guinea's prime minister, who said that Conte himself had called to become better informed. Like Djinnit, Costa essentially excused Conte for allow the country's presidency to be used for drug trafficking by saying Conte was ill, and couldn't control his son. The disparity of the UN's statements about "coup leaders" in Honduras and its "flexible" approach to Guinea could not be more stark.

Inner City Press also Djinnit, Costa or their two panel members Andrew Hughes, UN Police Adviser, Department for Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO); and Harper Boucher, INTERPOL Special Representative to the UN, to comment on the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission's recommendation that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, so praised by the UN, be removed from public life for 30 years for supporting war lord Charles Taylor.

The only response, such as it was, from from Mr. Hughes, who said he was not the right one to answer. Afterwards, Inner City Press asked INTERPOL's Mr. Boucher about the freeing of former Kosovar prime minister Ceku from an Interpol warrant for war crimes by the flashing of a UN document. Boucher said he wasn't that familiar with the case, but that it might be "political" You don't say...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undrug1guinea070809.html