By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, December 20 -- When is accepting the leader of a coup d'etat
a purely internal matter of a sovereign state?
The
question arose Thursday about Mali after the UN Security Council
adopted a resolution authorizing a mission to work with the Malian
army to re-take the north of the country.
While
Mali was lobbying for the resolution, its prime minister resigned at
4 am Bamako time; UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's meeting with the
then-foreign minister was canceled.
Now
the new foreign minister Tieman Coulibaly is in town, and Inner City
Press asked him if Captain Amadou Sanogo, who led the earlier coup, is still
involved, and why that prime minister resigned at 4 am after being
arrested at the airport. Video here from Minute 5:10.
He
was
not arrested at the airport, new foreign minister Coulibaly cut
in. He said prime minister Diarra -- the brother of a former UN Under
Secretary General -- resigned for the good of the country: it "was
necessary to move forward, the former prime minister had become a
problem for Mali. Satisfied?" Video here from Minute 5:40.
Moments
later Inner City Press asked Cote d'Ivoire Ambassador Bamba, speaking
for the West African group ECOWAS, if Sanogo should still be
involved. No, Bamba answered.
The
final stakeout of the day, and perhaps year, was by Moroccan
Ambassador Loulichki, the President of the Security Council through
December 31. Inner City Press asked him about the seeming split
between the Malian representative's statement and that of Bamba for
ECOWAS: should Sanogo still be involved?
That
is a sovereign matter up to the Malians, Loulichki said. So what does
it mean when the Security Council calls for the restoration of
democracy, or of deposed leaders -- is that an interference with
sovereignty. There are double standards, and then triple standards.
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