By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 18
-- This UN has
ceded
its top
Peacekeeping
job
to France,
and so anyone
that country
nominates is
put in charge.
France could
send a
vegetable, an
endive, and he
would be given
a
staff, a
military
adviser, and
spokespeople.
He could refuse
to
answer or even
acknowledge
hard questions
- heck, he
could slobber
and fall on
the floor -
and still he
would have the
job. That is
the
UN.
So
it has been
with Herve
Ladsous. The
last three
heads of the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
have been from
France, and so
then-President
Nicolas
Sarkozy was
given le
droit
to name the
fourth.
Sarkozy
chose
Jerome
Bonnafont, a
flashy French
diplomat then
Ambassador to
India. But
Bonnafont made
the mistake of
bragging that
he had the
job, and Inner
City Press heard and
reported it.
Suddenly
Bonnafont
was out,
and without
any interview,
without any
review, bland
bureaucrat
Herve Ladsous
was given the
job.
What
were Ladsous'
credentials?
He had
arranged the
flights of
Michele
Aliot-Marie on
planes of
cronies of
Tunisian
dictator Ben
Ali.
Aliot-Marie
left in
disgrace: but
Ladsous was
sent to the
UN.
Here,
when asked
about the
Tunisia
flights, he
refused to
answer. He
soon
proposed
another form
of flight for
the UN, the
use of drones,
but
wouldn't say
who would get
the
information
gathered by
the drones.
Then he
decided that
the Press
which asked
these
questions
would
be cut off -
until he
either shifted
to positive
coverage, or
was
banished.
But
that's not how
it's supposed
to work, at
least under
the First
Amendment. And
so questions
kept being
asked -- about
a politicized
pull-out from
Syria, about
cholera in
Haiti, about
peacekeepers'
negligence and
even
recruitment of
murderous
militias in
the Congo --
and Ladsous
just kept
refusing to
answer or even
to acknowledge
the
questions. Video
here, from
Minute 5:06.
Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson's
office tried
to say this
didn't matter,
they
would
get answers
for
DPKO. But this
substitution
didn't work.
Former UN
Department of
Field Support
boss Susana
Malcorra
became Ban's
chief of
staff, and
still nothing
changed.
Basically,
once
a top UN
position has
been ceded to
a Permanent
Five member of
the Security
Council, they
can send
anyone. Anyone
at all. It
undermines any
concept of
meritocracy or
transparency
at the UN. But
that doesn't
seem to
matter.
Ladsous came
to run the
UN's main
department
into the
ground, and he
has been worse
for the UN
than
having NO ONE
in the job.
But France
voted for Ban
Ki-moon so
they
get the job,
and they chose
Ladsous.
But
wasn't it Sarkozy
who chose
Ladsous? What
does Francois
Hollande say?
What does Jan
Eliasson say?
Many others
are bought in,
or are
ignoring the
Ladsous
circus -- but
some aren't.
Watch this
site.
