By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 1 -- When Ambassador Fode Seck of Senegal, the president of the UN Security Council for November, took questions on the program of work on November 1, of the more than 12 questions none were on Syria. Yemen was only allowed to be raised near the end, and Western Sahara (by Inner City Press) only at the very end.
On that, while not listed on the Program of Work, Herve Ladsous the fourth Frenchman in a row to run UN Peacekeeping, will brief about a visit many called tellingly limited.
Inner City Press asked asked Fode Seck about Al Shabaab's advances in Somalia, if he thought the Council will take that up or just wait for a future regularly scheduled briefing. This question hasn't been answered yet. Inner City Press, as the Free UN Coalition for Access monthly does, asked him as President of the Council to do question and answer stakeouts after consultations.
On a day when Ban Ki-moon fired the Kenyan force commander of UNMISS in South Sudan as a scapegoat for Ladsous, just as Senegal's Babacar Gaye was used as Ladsous' scapegoat for the rapes in the Central African Republic which continued after he was fired, Fode Seck noted his country's interest in peacekeeping. Senegal has, in fact, forces in Haiti - but that country, and Ban's eleventh hour cholera proposal, was not able to be raised.
There will be debates on water and security, UN Police, the OIC and African Union; there will be Arria formula meetings on cyber and separately Da'esh.
There will be a trip to the DR Congo -- Kinshasa, Goma and Beni -- from November 11 to 14, and the “Finnish Workshop” on November 3 (post Ladsous) and 4. Will anything be accomplished on Yemen? On Syria, on which no questions were asked? Watch this site.
