By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 13 -- More than a day after the coup d'etat in Guinea Bissau, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman issued the following statement:
"The United Nations is following reports of armed activities heard in Bissau on 12 April. The Secretariat is in close consultation on the matter with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General to Guinea-Bissau and the United Nations team on the ground."
Ban's wan response stands in contrast to the speed which which he "deplored" the failed rocket launch by his old nemesis North Korea. His envoy to Guinea Bissau, Joseph Mutaboba, hosted a listed drug kingpin in the UN compound there.
Then again, Ban's briefer to the Security Council Friday morning about North Korea was Oscar Fernandez Taranco, the Argentine who recently schooled his own country on how to raise the Malvinas or Falkland Islands at the UN, and who went to post-coup Maldives and in essence gave Ban's blessing. Could he do the same in Guinea Bissau?
More seriously there was talk of giving a UN Security Council mandate to the Angolan soldiers who are already in Guinea Bissau.
There was less said, at least at the UN, at the disappeared blogger Aly Silva, author of Ditadura do Consenso. Guinea Bissau was dealt with by the Council between North Korea and Syria. Portugal's Permanent Representative Cabral was asked to specify who much time the Council spent on North Korea versus Guinea Bissau. That's not the way to judge it, he said. Some issues can be quickly solved. Which one would that be? Watch this site.
