On
UN
Budget, US
Makes 11th
Hour Proposal
for
Flexibility
for Ban, May
Vote on
Myanmar, R2P
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 24 --
Outside the UN
budget
negotiations
at 2 am on
Christmas Eve,
new details
emerged about
the US Mission
strategy
behind closed
doors.
Inner City
Press was
told, in the
nature of a
complaint,
that "at the
eleventh hour"
or midnight,
US
Ambassador for
Management Joe
Torsella
suddenly
introduced a
proposal
to give
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon more
"flexibility"
after the
budget is
approved.
"Come
on,"
the
representative
of a major
developing
country
scoffed. "If
you're going
to make this
kind of
proposal,
don't wait
until midnight
and show up
with a bunch
of copies."
While
his
complaint may
have been on
the
conventional
fault line of
the
countries that
pay, like the
US, and those
who want to
see
development
through the
UN, Torsella
is open to
another
critique.
Torsella
has beat
the drum from
transparency,
for televising
Budget
Committee
sessions,
making the
public see how
a $5 billion
budget is
proposed and
negotiated.
Then he comes
and makes an
eleventh hour
proposal
behind
closed doors.
"Watch,"
the
developing
world
representative
predicted. "If
the US
doesn't think
it has the
numbers, it
won't call for
a vote, it
will
have all been
secret... Or,
not any more."
Torsella
at US Mission,
11th hour
proposal not
shown (c)
MRLee
He
predicted
votes
on the
Responsibility
to Protect,
with "ALBA
countries
opposing
it," on
"Myanmar and
on the
Oceans." And
on Torsella's
eleventh hour
proposal? It
was 2 am, and
nothing had
had gone to
the
final meeting
of the Third
Committee,
much less the
full GA. Watch
this site.
, 
