By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 28
-- The dispute
between Sudan
and South
Sudan about
Abyei has been
the subject of
UN talk and
spending at
least since
the time of
the defunct
Peacekeeping
mission UNMIS.
But on
September 27,
when Inner
City Press
asked "on
Abyei, what is
the UN's
role?" the
chief of the
UN Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations
Herve Ladsous
refused to
answer.
On September
28, after
belatedly
obtaining a
response to
the same
question from
outgoing
Security
Council
president
Peter Wittig,
Inner City
Press learned
that Ladsous'
DPKO had hit a
new low.
DPKO asked to
get even Inner
City Press'
question about
Abyei removed
from the UN
webcast
archived
video.
That is the
strategy: to
censor or
modify the
UN's video
production to
make it appear
that no
question was
even asked. A
new low.
But here, even
if this new
low for the UN
is achieved by
Ladsous and
(at least)
three
spokespeople
he has debased
is successful,
is YouTube
video of that
Abyei question
stakeout. Video
here.
And German
Ambassador
Wittig, while
seeking to
focus on the
congratulatory
aspect of the
UNSC Press
Statement he
read out, said
that the
Security
Council will
meet again
about Sudan
and South
Sudan, and
Abyei, and get
a briefing
from envoy
Haile
Menkerios.
Apparently,
the bi-weekly
meetings on
the Sudans
will continue.
But what of
Ladsous and
his refusal to
answer Press
questions
about his job,
and then
attempts to
get even the
questions
censored or
edited out of
the UN's
webcast video?
Who is hurting
the UN's
credibility?
On
Thursday
evening, Ladsous'
spokeswoman
told the UNTV
boom
microphone
operator not
to give the
mic to Inner
City Press,
and tried to
convince the
two other
correspondents
present to ask
questions. But
there were no
other
questions.
Ladsous walked
away from the
microphone as
Inner City
Press asked
the Abyei
question. Now
DPKO has asked
to have the
question
edited out.
Ladsous
is
hitting a new
low. Beginning
in late May,
after Inner
City Press
ran an
exclusive
article about
Ladsous'
proposal
behind closed
doors
that DPKO use
drones,
Ladsous had
refused to
answer any
Inner City
Press
questions, no
matter how
simple.
Inner
City Press
asked Ladsous
why his
Department
flew Congolese
military
officials to a
meeting to
recruit the
Mai Mai
militia to
fight
another group,
the M23.
Ladsous
refused to
answer.
But
on Sudan and
South Sudan,
on which the
member states
which pay
Ladsous'
tax-free
salary have
spent
billions,
after millions
of
people have
been killed,
Ladsous'
refusal to
answer the
basic
question --
"on Abyei,
what is the
UN's role?" --
is
particularly
troubling.
By
contrast, at
the very same
stakeout area
earlier on the
same day,
Inner City
Press
questions were
taken and
answered by
the foreign
ministers of
Jordan and
Italy, Australia
and the
Netherlands.
But Ladsous,
ostensibly an
international
public
servant, won't
answer.
A fish rots from the head, as the old saw goes. And this old saw, more than one diplomat has said, should go. Watch this site.
