By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, September 4 -- UN envoy Mary Robinson, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said "“I do not say one thing in Goma and another thing in Rwanda. I say tough things, especially to people who need to hear those tough things directly."
Inner City Press asked Rwanda's Permanent Representative to the UN Eugene-Richard Gasana about the comments. We don't need tough talk, he told Inner City Press exclusively. We have nothing to learn from those who come with tough talk.
When bombs from the DRC fell in Rwanda, the UN quickly put the blame on the M23 rebels. Rwanda disagrees, and the UN has not come forward with proof. Gasana told Inner City Press on Wednesday, we have the means to know who did it.
There is an analogy, of course, to what the US is saying about the use of chemical weapons in Syria. They say they know who did it, they will not wait for the UN report.
Meanwhile some close UN watcher say that the lack of credibility of the UN's reports on the Great Lakes, from the Group of Experts' reports under Steve Hege to UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous' and Edmond Mulet's more recent charges undermine the argument that anyone should wait for the UN report on Syria.
(The UN's self-exoneration of bringing Haiti to cholerafurther calls the UN's reporting veracity into question.)
So if the US says don't wait for any UN report before acting on Syria, is that logic only for them, the ultimate American exceptionalism?
It is also strange that Mary Robinson, a member of The Elders like Kofi Annan today deploring armed conflict in Syria, is "talking tough" on government and UN military offensives in Eastern Congo. These double standards are getting Old. Watch this site.
