Burundi
Notes Belgium
Had No
Government For
a Year, UN
UNreformed
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
22 -- The
Security
Council tables
were turned on
Monday
morning, when
the Ambassador
of Burundi
began his
speech with
the
fact that
former
colonial
powerhouse
Belgium was
without a
government
for more than
a year.
He
then mocked
those to whom
"good
government is
so dear,"
citing a
proverb from
another
colonialist,
France: "An
empty
stomach has no
ears."
On
the other end
of the
spectrum,
after the
chair of the
UN
Peacebuilding
configuration
Paul Seger of
Switzerland
spoke in the
open meeting,
he like
Burundi was
not allowed
into the
Security
Council's
consultation.
These
exclusions are
one of the reforms
proposed by
the new ACT
grouping,
and the Small
Five before
it. Seger
stopped and
told Inner
City Press
that, along
with lines of
another saying
about Mohamed
and the
mountain, he
had invited
Security
Council
members to
consult with
him
on Friday, and
they did. But
at what level?
Seger
was in Burundi
from June 24
to 28, and
among other
things as
regards
the
International
Monetary Fund
said, "both
the Burundian
authorities
and the donors
consider the
socio-economic
situation to
be difficult,
although the
two sides do
not
necessarily
have the same
interpretation
of the causes
of this
fragility. The
recent mission
by
the
International
Monetary Fund
summed up the
main
challenges
well. I
strongly
encourage the
government to
follow its
recommendations."
There
were four then
one then no
media in front
of the
Security
Council --
the Conference
Building wi-fi
seems not to
work, beyond
the lack
of
the media
worktable that
existed in
front of the
Security
Council
before and
during the
Capital Master
Plan
renovation.
To return to
Seger's
speech, while
the IMF tends
to try to make
things easier
for
journalists to
cover it, the
opposite may
be the trend
at the UN. The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
has asked why.
Watch this
site.
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