By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 3 -- Guinea Bissau is on the agenda of the Security Council, but the assassination of its president and Army chief in 2009 has yet to result in any trial, much less indictment or conviction.
Inner City Press on November 3 asked both the UN's envoy in Guinea Bissau Joseph Mutaboba and this month's Security Council president, Portugal's Ambassador Cabral, about the lack of accountability for the 2009 assassinations.
Not only Mutaboba but also, surprisingly, Cabral answered the accountability question by referring to security sector reform and even a pension fund for soldiers. Cabral video here. Both are fine ideas, but are not the accountability that Cabral and some other Permanent Representatives on the Security Council often loudly call for.
Mutaboba said that accountability cannot be allowed to undermine the security gains he said have been made. Asked if that meant putting off accountability, he said it had to be "balanced." This is not the standard UN answer -- it is one that Omar al Bashir, and more recently Saif al Islam Gaddafi, would like.
Mutaboba appeared defensive, not only on accountability but also on drugs. Video here. Inner City Press asked him about the case in which his UN Mission had provided refuge to a US-named Narcotics Kingpin, Bubo Na Tchuto. Mutaboba replied that not all member states see it that way. A close observer said that Mutaboba is hoping his past decision to shelter a drug kingpin just "goes away."
In fact, the US Ambassador who spoke about this at the Security Council was Brooke Anderson, just before she left the UN Mission. Will there be follow up? Watch this site.
