Saturday, September 22, 2012

Guinea Bissau Coup Gaining UN Acceptance by Attrition, Sanctions Violations


By Matthew Russell Lee
 
UNITED NATIONS, September 18 -- While Mali after the coup gets its own mini summit meeting next week at the UN, from Guinea-Bissau the interim president brought in by the coup, Manuel Serifo Mhanadjo, is poised to meet with the UN Secretariat of Ban Ki-moon and thus be legitimated.

  Meanwhile despite a Security Council travel ban imposed on coup leaders including General Antonio Njai, he has reportedly been traveling through / with the assistance of such countries as Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire.

  This month's Security Council president Peter Wittig was asked about this and said it is still being considered by the Council sanctions committee chaired by Morocco.

   Inner City Press notes that the UN Office on West Africa head by Algerian diplomat Said Djinnit is based in Senegal; the UN has a large and now often silent mission in Cote d'Ivoire. Are some violations of sanctions taken seriously and others not?

  Security Council member India has cut back on its imports of cashews from Guinea Bissau; the country is trying to renegotiate its Angolan bauxite deal.

  But, as one Council member told Inner City Press offhandedly as he left the Council, as least violence on the ground has decreased. Some coups, apparently, are okay. Watch this site.