By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/cote1choi072309.html
UNITED NATIONS, July 23 -- The UN's envoy to Cote d'Ivoire Choi Young-jin told the Press on Thursday that the contester voter registration process in the run up to long promised Presidential elections was "credible," and that there is no need to draw down UN peacekeeping troops in the country at this time. Local sources say that up to 20% of those who should have been registered to vote, weren't.
Meanwhile when Inner City Press asked Cote d'Ivoire's representative at the UN on Thursday if his country needs troops or peacekeepers, he said "no." An advisor to President Gbagbo told Inner City Press that the UN is spending over $400 million a year for reporting on crime, but will remain in the country "going to the beach" because that's how the UN works.
Another way the UN works in Cote d'Ivoire is to stay quiet. Inner City Press asked Mr. Choi if his office had any involvement in inquiring into the disappearance of journalist Guy Andre Kieffer, which an Army major recently blamed on those around the President's wife Simone Gbagbo. That is a bilateral matter, Mr. Choi twice said, declining to answer further. Video here, from Minute 9:29.
Later Mr. Choi made a sales pitch for his mission, saying it could become the most successful of all of the UN's 18 mission because Cote d'Ivoire has a budget of $5 billion a year, and 40,000 soldiers and police, all paid by the government. Inner City Press asked him, in light of the litany of negative reviews this month of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's first two and a half years, if he had any defense to offer, or if he thought his Mission was not praised enough by the press.
Choi largely avoided the questions, other than saying he is loyal to the Secretariat. That may have done without saying -- or, compared with the behavior and refusal to file financial disclosure and otherwise obey of certain other UN envoys, perhaps not. Watch this site.
Footnote: while Inner City Press didn't ask it this time, there has still been no reporting by Choi or the UN on what discipline, if any, was meted out to the Moroccan peacekeepers repatriated from Cote d'Ivoire in the face of accusation of sexual exploitation and abuse. A report should be given.And see, www.innercitypress.com/cote1choi072309.html
