By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 24 --
While the UN
helps promote
and plan
military
action to
"re-conquer"
northern Mali,
reporting from
there
has touched on
another
conflict long
languishing on
the UN's
agenda:
Western
Sahara.
Today's
New
York Times
reports that
"In Timbuktu,
Cissé
Agaly, a
former
hotel manager,
said 37 new
fighters had
arrived over
the weekend.
'We
saw them
walking in the
market,' he
said, adding
that they
appeared
to be from
Western
Sahara.
Similarly, a
municipal
councilor in
Gao,
Abderahmane
Oumarou
Maïga,
said about 60
new fighters
had arrived in
the town, also
from Western
Sahara and the
border regions
of
Algeria."
The
fewer than 100
fighters the
Times links to
Western Sahara
-- 37
"appeared to
be from"
there, 60 are
asserted to be
"from
Western Sahara
and the border
regions of
Algeria," with
the
breakdown
unclear --
have given
rise to a
letter to four
UN officials
from the
representative
in New York of
the Frente
Polisario,
Ahmed
Boukhari.
Inner City
Press has
obtained the
communication
and
publishes it
below.
Writing
to
UN Under
Secretaries
General
Jeffrey
Feltman of the
US and Herve
Ladsous of
France, as
well as envoy
Christopher
Ross, Boukhari
states:
"Some
press reports
are trying to
implicate
'western
Sahara' in the
mess
taking place
in Mali. We
see in this a
new attempt by
Morocco 'local
friends' there
to create
confusion for
political
motivations
and
gain. No
credible
country or
person in the
world could
take this as
a serious
information.
Some media's
including the
NY Times today
have
taken this
fake
information
without
assessing its
credibility. I
think that
there is a
clear
objective here
to harm
Western Sahara
people and in
the process
the
international
credibility of
Polisario
whose position
is very known
on this
matter. I am
sure that UN
will
be able to
separate what
is right and
what is wrong
regarding
information
and news
coming from
that region."
This
confidence
that the UN
distinguishes
between right
and wrong
information,
from Africa or
anywhere else,
might be
misplaced.
Currently
the
UN Sanctions
Committee on
Cote d'Ivoire
is alleging
Gbagbo
supporters are
trying to link
with groups in
Mali; the
reporting of
UN coordinator
Steve Hege on
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo and
Rwanda has
been
challenged,
including
based on his
2009 writings
dismissive of
the threat
posed by the
FDLR militia,
which once
Inner
City Press
linked to them
were taken off
the Internet.
Furthermore,
questions have
arisen about
Herve Ladsous,
formerly
France's
Permanent
Representative
to the UN
including
during the
Rwanda
genocide, now
heading UN
Peacekeeping
and so its
mission in
Western
Sahara.
Ladsous
refuses to
answer any
Press
questions, saying
on October 22,
"Mister I told
you
already that I
would answer
your questions
when you stop
making
insulting
insinuations
about me." Video
here, at
Minute 26:22.
But
it is not
an insinuation
to note
France's
position on
Western Sahara
and no human
rights
component in
MINURSO, to
note that
Ladsous was
the Deputy
Permanent
Representative
of France, and
to expect him
to
answer
questions for
example about
his views on
the
peacekeeping
mission in
Western
Sahara.
Just
for
comparison,
the
above-addressed
Feltman has
answered
questions
about possible
conflicts of
interest due
to his prior
service in the
US State
Department.
So
what is
different
about Herve
Ladsous? As
some now
surmise, could
his
thin-skinned
refusal to
answer Press
questions, and
characterization
of
questions as
"insulting
insinuations,"
be indicative
of
actual
conflicts of
interest of
the type
Feltman took
questions on
and addressed,
in their
fashion? And
might these
play out not
only in
Western Sahara
but in Mali?
Watch this
site.
