By Matthew Russell Lee, News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, June 29 -- French armed forces spokesman Thierry Burkhard has “said guns, rocket-propelled grenades and munitions were parachuted in to rebels in the Nafusa mountains” by the French government. Since UN Security Council resolution 1973 imposes an arms embargo on Libya -- all sides of the conflict -- France has now admitted violating the Council resolution.
While the Libya Sanctions committee has been remarkably passive amid reports of retired British special forces offering training to the rebels, paid by Qatar, this on the record bragging about dropping weapons to the rebels should trigger action.
It comes days after the UN confirmed that its top peacekeeping official Alain Le Roy will leave on or before August 23. Sources in the Ban Ki-moon administration indicate not only that his successor will also be French, but that there has already been an accepted candidate: Eric Chevalier. (Others say that his initial selection may change by August.)
But the question arises: should a country that now brags of violating terms imposed by the Security Council, which sets the mandates of and oversees the missions of the Department of Peacekeeping Operation, be allowed to continue to head up UN peacekeeping?
While this persona of “armed humanitarianism” -- or armING, in this case -- is popular with some, it increasingly raises hackles among BRIC members of the Security Council, and in the wider UN. For that reason, some question whether French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud stepping forward to play a visible role in the UN peacekeeping budget negotiations is a good idea.
During last week's negotiations in the Security Council to authorize Ethiopian troops to go into Sudan's Abyei area, France is known to have questioned whether 4000 troops, to be funded by the UN, would really be necessary. Why not 3000?
When defense of human rights runs into conflict with trying to save money, France seems to have a new solution: airdrop in deadly weapons then wash hands of the consequence. We'll see.
