Ban's
UN Doubts
Palestine as
Vice Chair in
Arms Trade
Treaty Talks,
Silva Cited
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 19
-- Palestine'd
bid to be a
vice chair of
the upcoming
Arms Trade
Treaty talks
at the UN,
first reported
by Inner
City Press on
February 7,
proceeds but
now
problematized
by Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
Secretariat.
At the most
recent
"informals" on
the ATT, the
UN Secretariat
changed its
position that
it will be in
the "all
states"
format, which
since November
29, 2012
includes
Palestine.
Rather,
Ban's
Secretariat --
on behalf of
the US, as
several
sources put it
to Inner City
Press -- is
pointing to
the seating
arrangements
at the ATT
meeting before
last
November's
vote.
Then,
Palestine and
the Holy See
sat in the
corner. That
was then, this
is now, the
Palestinian
argument goes.
And so far in
the Asia Group
no candidate
has come
forward to
challenge
them.
If it remains
so, the
precedent
should be Ban
Ki-moon's and
Herve Ladsous'
acceptance as
the Asia
Group's
representative
on the Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations of
Shavendera
Silva, a
general
depicted in
Ban's report
on Sri Lanka
as engaged in
war crimes.
If Ban
deferred to
the Group on
Silva -- Ban
told Inner
City Press
that was a
"decision of
member states"
-- than it
would seem he
would have to
similarly
defer to the
Asia Group on
Palestine as
ATT Vice
Chair.
Or
does the US
care more
about
Palestine's
placard than
war crimes?
On a story
Inner City
Press published
earlier today,
about the one
week delay in
the UN even
answering
Inner City
Press'
February 12
question about
Palestinian
hunger
strikers,
another gloss
has been
offered.
Rather than
that Ban was
only moved to
answer by
protests in
Ramallah, the
gloss is that
"Ban spoke
with Bibi
[Netanyahu]
and it didn't
go well, so
Ban spoke
out." Better
late that
never, the
source said.
But
telling, notes
Inner City
Press, just as
the denouement
on the ATT
Vice Chair bid
will be. Watch
this site.
, 
