By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 22 --
Mali was the
subject of a
UN Security
Council
briefing on
Monday
afternoon by
UN human
rights
official Ivan
Simonovic.
He took questions
from the Press
on October 10,
after a
short visit to
the south part
of Mali.
Nearly two
weeks later,
seemingly with
no additional
information,
he briefed the
Security
Council.
Afterward,
several
delegations
told Inner
City Press
that the
so-called UN
Human
Rights Due
Diligence that
Simonovic told
the Press
about on
October
10 did not
come up.
Another source
said it is
proving very
difficult
to get any
human rights
component or
"track" in the
French-led
discussion of
the
re-conquest of
northern Mali.
It
was noted to
Inner City
Press, with
dissatisfaction,
that the two
two
UN officials
sent to the
October 19
meeting in
Bamako were
both
Europeans: the
Swedish Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson and
the
new UN Sahel
tzar, Romano
Prodi of
Italy.
A
source asked
Inner City
Press,
apparently
rhetorically,
"Couldn't
at least one
of the top duo
they sent
there be
African? Or
Arab?"
The source
called this a
"new
colonialism."
But
it gets little
coverage, in
part due to
lack not only
of diversity
but also of
transparency.
Midday on
Monday UN
Peacekeeping
boss Herve
Ladsous,
alongside
refusing to
answer
questions
about killed
peacekeepers
in Darfur and
DPKO inaction
in Sudan due
to unspecified
previous
"insulting
insinuations"
by Inner City
Press
against him,
purported to
raise
consciousness
about the Mali
issue.
But the
coverage he'd
gotten, five
hours later,
beyond of his
own
stonewalling
was all about
Syria, saying
he was
"planning"
for a
peacekeeping
force there.
And so it
goes.
