By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 12 --
After months
of
hand-wringing
about the coup
in Mali and
takeover of
the north by
insurgents,
the UN
Security
Council on
Friday
afternoon
passed a
resolution
which still
does not
authorize
military
force.
As drafted by
France, it
said that a
plan
for such
action by the
West African
regional group
ECOWAS should
be
submitted in
30 days.
But
several of
Mali's
neighbors are
not members of
ECOWAS,
notably
Algeria, Chad
and
Mauritania.
And US
Assistant
Secretary of
State
Johnnie Carson
has started
citing the
slow process
used in
Somalia as
a model.
Ultimately
30
days became 45
days -- one
Council told
Inner City
Press,
unlikely
anything gets
done in 30
days -- and
there's a
reference to
getting the
African Union
-- that is,
non ECOWAS
members --
involved as
well.
On
his way in to
the 15-0 vote,
French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
was asked
about the
change. He
said he
wouldn't
discuss the
negotiations,
then
called them
more technical
than
political.
Don't tell
Johnnie Carson.
Some argued
for this
adoption,
under Chapter
VII of the UN
Charter, to
allow more
specific
planning at
the October 15
meeting of the
Defense
Ministers of
the EU - fresh
off their
Nobel Peace
Prize win.
An
African
Permanent
Representative,
leaving the
vote, told
Inner City
Press
bitterly, now
they are in
the war making
mode.
Despite
protests, the
Security
Council also
15-0
rubber-stamped
another one
year extension
of its mission
in Haiti,
MINUSTAH.
At the
day's UN noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press again
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
why the claim
that the
UN introduced
cholera into
Haiti has been
pending so
long without
action in
Ban's Office
of Legal
Affairs.
Nesirky called
the timing
normal in a
legal
proceeding.
Really? Watch
this site.
