By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unbf1guinea121009.html
UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- With Guinean strongman Moussa Dadis Camara still speechless in Morocco following the attempt on his life, the military government in Guinea has pulled out of the mediation facilitated by Burkina Faso's president Blaise Campaore. Inner City Press asked Burkinabe Ambassador Michel Kafando on December 10 for his country's reaction.
"Our mediation has as its support the consent of the parties," he answered. That one party wants to "disengage," he said, has led "not to a rupture but a pause in the facilitation." Video here, from Minute 4:41.
Less diplomatic, a senior French official in New York was asked if Dadis Camara will regain his capacities. The official snarked, "Given what capacities he had before..." and added that according to French intelligence, Dadis Camara was drinking until 3 a.m. and waking up in the afternoon, a "thug."
On December 9, Inner City Press asked the spokesman for Ban Ki-moon
Inner City Press: on Guinea. The military junta has said it’s pulling out of the talks until [Moussa] Dadis Camara is returned. What is the UN, given Said Djinnit and others involved in that, what do they think of that, and are they aware of these reports that the junta is rounding up people and disappearing or torturing them?
Spokesperson Nesirky: The UN is aware of these reports that you’re referring to. I don’t have anything specific on that particular aspect that you mentioned, and I’ll have to find out and come back to you on that.
At the noon briefing on December 10, ill attended because held at the same time as a media stakeout by U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, Spokesman Nesirky said that in response to Inner City Press' question of the previous day, the Secretary General "reiterates the need to avoid violence."
There was a reference to democracy. But, also on December 10, Inner City Press asked and was told that post-coup Madagascar will be allowed to participate, by the coup leader, in the UN's Copenhagen conference. Watch this site.
