Argentina's
UNSC
Month Has
Latin Groups,
May Have Congo
But No CAR?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 2 --
The first
thing people
noticed about
Ambassador
Marķa Cristina
Perceval's UN
press
conference
Friday on the
Security
Council's
program of
work for her
month as
president was
that she
spoke entirely
in Spanish.
Of
course,
Spanish is not
only one of
the six
official
languages of
the
United Nations
-- it is also
the second
most active
language among
tweeting
diplomats, far
outpacing
French which
France still
claims is
the language
of diplomacy.
The
second thing
people
noticed,
beyond some
long
impassioned
answers
about
Argentina's
history, was
that Marķa
Cristina
Perceval was
classy. Before
and after
Inner City
Press asked
about the
Malvinas or
Falkland
Islands and
the UN's
ultimatum in
the Congo,
nearly all of
the questions
were about
Syria, and all
pointing one
way.
When
another
journalist
dared ask
about the UN
taking sides,
in Iraq ten
years ago and
Libya more
recently, many
"correspondents"
tried
to shout the
questions
down. Marķa
Cristina
Perceval on
the
other hand was
classy, only
asking that
the question
be "a bit
shorter,"
making a small
space between
her thumb and
forefinger.
Inner
City Press,
after thanking
Perceval on
behalf of the
Free
UN
Coalition for
Access (in
Spanish) and
expressing
hope that she
do
many question
and answer
stakeouts
during the
month, asked
her if the
MONUSCO
mission
checked with
the Council
before issuing
its 48 hour
ultimatum for
groups to
disarm between
Goma and Sake
in Eastern
Congo.
The
answer appears
to be no:
Perceval said
the Security
Council sets
the
mandate, then
it is up to
the Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations
to implement
it.
But,
we note, when
DPKO is handed
over to a
single country
four times in
a
row, as with
France, and
has culminated
in a person
who
represented
France in the
Security
Council during
the Rwanda
genocide and
argued
for the escape
of
genocidaires
into Eastern
Congo, isn't
this an
invitation for
problems?
Marķa
Cristina
Perceval said
the Council
may meet on
the topic in
August;
for now it is
only in the
footnotes.
Yes, an
invitation for
problems.
Inner
City Press had
wanted to
asked Perceval
about its exclusive
report of
August 1, that
France because
of vacations
says it will
NOT be
drafting a
Central
African
Republic
resolution
this month.
Given
other
officials'
statements,
for example
the EU's Kristalina
Georgieva,
talking and
writing about
the plight of
CAR, can one
country's
mission's
vacations
stall action?
We'll see.
Inner
City Press ask
Perceval about
another topic
it
reported on
yesterday:
the August 6
debate on
cooperation
with regional
and
subregional
organizations.
Would Cuba's
foreign
minister be
coming, to
represent
CELAC? Yes.
What
about the
Malvinas or
Falkland
Islands, which
at least one
Permanent
Member of the
Council told
Inner City
Press will be
a topic on
August
6? Perceval
was
diplomatic,
saying that is
an issue in
the Special
Committee on
De-Colonization.
As
her press
conference
stretched past
one hour,
Perceval was
asked about
Edward Snowden
-- by Voice
of America, a
media run by
the US State
Department,
with John
Kerry on the
its
Broadcasting
Board of
Governors --
and about
migrants dying
trying to get
to Europe.
This
last question
invoked the
Argentinian
Pope Francis;
Perceval said
she
listened to
him, not only
because he's
from
Argentina, but
for that
reason too.
Footnote:
we
conclude with
this
because we
must:
Permanent
Representative
Marķa
Cristina
Perceval after
being asked
for stakeouts
by the Free
UN
Coalition for
Access,
responded that
its co-founder
Inner City
Press
is "most
present" in
covering the
Security
Council.
Why
then did the Department
of Public
Information
and its
partners, its
UN Censorship
Alliance,
conspire to
make a rule purporting
to ban
media
workspace at
the Security
Council
stakeout, most
glaringly by
prohibiting
the work table
present at the
stakeout
before and
during
the
relocation?
When Inner
City Press bought
and brought
its own table,
at the
beginning of
the UK's month
in June, DPI
came and took
it away. This
issue must be
solved.
Watch this
site.