Thursday, April 9, 2015

Malian FM Diop Tells Inner City Press of Deal Spoilers, Says Gao Killing Report "Released" by UN - But It Was Not


By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 9 -- When the UN Security Council met about Mali on April 9, it was Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop, and again not UN Peacekeeping official Herve Ladsous, who distributed his speech and came to take Press questions. (Ladsous has a policy against it, here and on April 2 on Mali here.)
  Inner City Press asked Diop what his country wants the Security Council to do to "force" the Coordination / MNLA to sign the agreement, and questions about UN Peacekeepers killing three unarmed Malians, which Ladsous refused to answer on.
 Diop said the Council should "fully endorse" the agreement, and that there should be "consequences" for those who oppose its implementation.
 On the UN Peacekeepers shooting an unarmed protesters in Gao -- as they did in Haiti the previous month -- Diop called it an unfortunate loss of Malian lives. He said the UN report had been "released" but that is not the case - it was merely summarized, with no information nor answers from Ladsous about the underlying Ladsous mission deal in Tabankort.
 (In Haiti, tellingly, the UN report has not even been summarized - we'll have more on this.)