This Wednesday (17 August) Foreign Policy published a piece by Ban Ki-moon’s Chief of Staff, Vijay Nambiar, rebutting an earlier article by former South African President Thabo Mbeki in FP about the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire. It’s worth a look.
Mbeki argued that the international community was “fundamentally wrong” to insist that Côte d’Ivoire hold elections for which it was not ready in 2010. Nambiar says that Mbeki offers an “inaccurate account” of the crisis.
This is heated stuff. But one can’t help noticing that Mbeki’s article appeared on, er, 29 April. It’s good that the UN is standing up for its principles. But did it really need the best part of four months to draft a rebuttal?
