By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 17 -- Six
months after
UN Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations
chief Herve
Ladsous told
Inner City
Press that a
Status of
Forces
Agreement in
Abyei was
"nearly done,"
Inner City
Press on
May 17 asked
the
representatives
of Sudan and
South Sudan
why this SOFA
was in fact
NOT done.
South
Sudan has
criticized the
"unnecessary
delay," and
Ladsous on May
1 refused to
take
Inner City
Press'
question on
Sudan.
And
so on the
afternoon of
May 17 Inner
City Press
asked Ladsous
directly about
this seeming
failure in
Sudan. Ladsous
as he walked
upstairs from
the Security
Council
preparing to
smoke one of
his slender
cigarettes
told Inner
City Press
pointedly, "I
do not talk to
you."
The
same day,
Ladsous
appeared at
length on
France 24,
answering
softball
questions
about the UN's
actions in
former French
colony Cote
d'Ivoire.
Ladsous is the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row atop DPKO,
but by far the
least
communicative.
His
predecessor
Alain Le Roy,
for example, a
year ago held
question and
answer
stakeouts on April
1, April
4, April
8, April
11 and April
15 - that
is, five in 15
DAYS.
In
his entire
term since
being
appointed by
Nicolas
Sarkozy as a
last minute
replacement
for Jerome
Bonnafont, who
bragged he was
getting the
job,
Ladsous has
only taken
questions at
the UN on October
13, 11
November,
January
5, February
7 (with
Roger Meece)
and May
1 -- only
about Syria,
refusing
questions
about Sudan
and Haiti and
the
introduction
of
cholera.
That is, five
in MORE THAN
SIX MONTHS.
One
of the jobs of
the head of
DPKO is to be
the public
face and
explain the
situation
of
peacekeepers.
Ladsous has
failed in
this, and and
failed
to
protect
peacekeepers.
There are
mounting calls
for the new
French
administration
from Francois
Holland
through Prime
Minister Jean
Marc Ayrault
to new Foreign
Minister
Fabuis to
replace
Ladsous with a
more
credible, and
creditable,
head of DPKO.
The
position
should
NOT be ceded
to any
country, just
as the
Department of
Political
Affairs should
not. But even
if it is,
surely France
can do better
than this
non-entity who
openly says to
the Press "I
do not talk
to you" while
appearing on
France 24.
Watch this
site.
