By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 31 -- After the UN Security Council voted 15-0 on a modified version of a Cote d'Ivoire resolution introduced by France and Nigeria on March 25, Inner City Press posed questions about the resolution and military advances by forces supporting Alassane Ouattara to the Ambassadors of France, Nigeria and Ouattara, Yousoufou “Joseph” Bamba. (Click here for YouTube video of March 25 Q&A with Bamba).
On March 29 outside the US Misison to the UN, Inner City Press asked Bamba when he thought it would be over. “This weekend,” Bamba said smiling. “We'll have coffee.”
On March 30, Inner City Press asked Bamba at the Security Council stakeout on UN TV what the Ouattara forces who do about the call for a ceasefire by Laurent Gbagbo.
Bamba said that Ouattara is the president of the country. Some at the stakeout muttered, so is Gaddafi. But it was lost in the rush to get US Ambassador Susan Rice to the stakeout microphone.
Inner City Press asked French Ambassador Gerard Araud if France thought the Ouattara forces should pause in their advances.
Araud said, “Ouattara is the president of Cote d’Ivoire and the legitimate forces of the legitimate president are under his authority.” The same skeptics wondered as a matter of consistency if France would apply this same answer to President Omar al Bashir in Sudan, or the new “president” of Myanmar.
Here is the Q&A as transcribed by the French Mission to the UN, with Inner City Press asking about
Inner City Press: What seems to be a criticism from India and Brazil, that ONUCI should be impartial. There are reports by the UN about firing at the UN helicopters by the forces of Ouattara and his invisible commandos. Are you calling for any restraint on that side?
Amb. Araud: Of course. We are calling to stop all violence against the ONUCI, all violence against the civilian population. I think the Indian and the Brazilian concerns are pretty legitimate. You have a civil war, you have violence growing, you have the prospect of maybe fighting in Abidjan. The Indians, especially because they are a major troop contributor, and Brazilians simply don’t want the ONUCI to become part of this fighting, part of the civil war. And again, about violence against civilians, we are addressing the same message to both sides.
Inner City Press: Do you think the Ouattara forces should stop their advances or you’re sort of cheering them on?
Amb. Araud: I think President Ouattara is the president of Côte d’Ivoire and the legitimate forces of the legitimate president are under his authority.
That Bamba would answer this way is understandable. It is perhaps more noteworthy from former colonial power France. But should the UN to speaking as its envoy Choi Young-jin does, most recently to Al Jazeera, that by these military advances by Ouattara's forces Ivorians are seizing their destiny, without foreign military intervention as in Libya?
India and Brazil, among others, urged UNOCI to be impartial. Later at the Chinese End of Presidency reception, a diplomat from a Council member with a population over one billion told Inner City Press it is a “terrible resolution,” and scoffed that the UN Secretariat briefings are “just based on Western media reports.”
Then why not vote “no,” or at least abstain?
Nigeria's Permanent Representative explained some of the changes to the initial draft, including the downward modification of a referral of the case of Cote d'Ivoire to the International Criminal to a passing mention of the possibility, through another mechanism, of the ICC. Also, she said, UNOCI is not called on to seize heavy weapons.
Inner City Press is informed that the previous force commander of UNOCI, or perhaps the entire Bangladeshi battalion, was skeptical of the more aggressive or “pro Ouattara” stance that some were demanding. The new force commander, from Togo, is said not to have those qualms.
Because India has complained about the rush to vote on the resolution, without sufficiently consulting Troop Contributing Countries, Inner City Press asked major TCC Nigeria about this criticism. Sometimes you have to move fast, the Nigerian Ambassador said.
Inner City Press asked, Will ECOWAS ask for a Security Council authorization to use force in Cote d'Ivoire? Nigeria's Ambassador replied that ECOWAS has not asked for that.
Somewhere a skeptic muttered, “not yet.” Watch this site.
Footnote: at the March 30 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press started asking Ban Ki-moon's acting deputy spokesman Farhan Haq if he understood the lack of impartiality complaints of "some people"--Haq cut in and asked Inner City Press, "By 'some people' you mean yourself?
No -- the criticism exists not only in Cote d'Ivoire (Inner City Press said at the briefing, "quite a few people in the Ivory Coast think that the UN is.... reporting only on one side") but even inside the Security Council, albeit in diplomat form, most publicly March 30 by India and Brazil.
So what is the UN's response? Watch this site.
