By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 22 -- The UN made much about the reported use of mercenaries by Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire. But when Inner City Press asked the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday about reports that Gadhafi is recruiting mercenaries in Nigeria, Guinea and Ghana, Martin Nesirky said he was not aware of the UN looking into this.
In Bahrain, the Sunni ruling family used police from Pakistan, Yeman and Sunni Muslim from India to crackdown on largely Shiite protesters. The Executive Office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is aware of this, but has yet to say anything.
These too can be viewed as mercenaries, even if the Bahrain ruling family offers some of them citizenship in order to keep up Sunni numbers against the Shiite majority. But the UN has said nothing.
UN's Ban & Bahrain PM, action on mercenaries not shown
On February 20 Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Nesirky
“Given that the Presidency of the General Assembly was held just three years ago by a family member of the dynasty which has ruled Bahrain for 300 years, has the Secretary-General sought to use his special relationship with former PGA Sheikha Haya Rashed al-Khalifa (who served during Ban’s first year as SG) to persuade the her ruling regime not to gun down any more protestors, as Bahraini Defense Forces did on Thursday? Does the Secretary-General think he has any influence at all over the ruling House of Khalifa, and might the former PGA be of assistance to the UN in this regard?”
More than two days later, no answer from the UN. Watch this site.
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