By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 3 -- Amid calls from some in Nepal for the UN to stay, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has re-assigned his top envoy from Nepal, Karin Landgren, to another rudderless UN Mission, in Burundi.
Inner City Press asked the UN for its response to the request that it stay in Nepal to deal with the rebel fighters still in the cantonments. The UN responded:
Date: Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 1:16 PM
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Subject: Answer
To: Inner City Press
On Nepal
"We received the letter from the Government of Nepal on 3 January and will respond. We have been in detailed discussions with the government over the disposal of UNMIN assets."
By limiting the discussion to the “disposal of UNMIN assets,” the UN Secretariat has already in essence answered the letter, in the negative: No. The same was true of re-assigning Ms. Landgren to replace Charles Petrie in Burundi, when there were still two weeks to go in the UN's Nepal mandate.
The UN Security Council is slated to hear from Ms. Landgren on January 5, the second working day of Bosnia's Council presidency.
But Ban has already pre-determined things with his re-assignment of Ms. Landgren.
Some used to think the UN had done a good job in Nepal. Its manner of leaving now seems to disprove that.
Is it any wonder that troubled Burundi demanded the shrinking of the UN's Burundi mission from 450 staff to a mere 60? And when WILL Charles Petrie re-surface in Somalia, and wearing what hat? Watch this site.
