For
UNSC's Chinese July, ICP
Asks of Burundi, if SG
Guterres Will Brief on Cyprus,
Reforms
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
July 3 – With the Presidency
of the UN Security Council
being taken over for July by
China, Ambassador Liu Jieyi on
July 3 took questions from the
media about the month's Program
of Work. Inner City Press
asked him if UN Secretary
General Antnio Guterres will
be briefing the Council about
his trip to Afghanistan, and
fly-by the Cyprus talks, about
the the Burundi session set
for July 26. Periscoep video here. The 226 UN Police
mandated a year ago have not
been deployed. Ambassador Liu
said that the Council will
hear from new part-time envoy
Michel Kafando, and from
Willian Mkapa. It is not clear
if or when Guterres will brief
the Council about Cyprus much
less Afghanistan. (Inner City
Press has asked Guterres' top
two spokesmen including when
Guterres will give his
political reforms retreat for
member states, July 15 or July
22-23, without response). Liu
answered at least ten
questioners, mostly on North
Korea, on which he reiterated
China's suspension for
suspension proposal. There wer
no other questions on Africa.
We will stay on this,
including the (unlisted?) briefing
on Somalia - Eritrea sanctions
and the long delayed Western
Sahara envoy, throughout the
month. On behalf of the Free
UN Coalition for Access, Inner
City Press asked the affable
Liu to do stakeouts throughout
the month. Watch this site.
Back in May with the
Presidency of the UN Security
Council being taken over
by Uruguay, Ambassador Elbio
Rosselli on May
1 took questions from
the media about the month's
Program of Work. Inner City
Press asked him about new
envoys for Burundi (Michel
Kafando) and Western
Sahara (Horst
Kohler, apparently Inner
City Press' 227th
question on Western Sahara
according to Morocco's count),
and about the May 30 meeting
on Yemen. Video
here. Rosselli said the
envoys are up to the Secretary
General and spoke about
Morocco's ouster, now
reversed, of the MINURSO
mission. On Yemen he said the
meeting is at the end of the
month because it is hard to
move these around, it's like
Tetris. On behalf of the Free
UN Coalition for Access Inner
City Press asked Rosselli
after the month's eight closed
door consultations to hold
on-camera stakeouts on UNTV.
We note
that Frente Polisario's April
28 stakeout, unlike that of
Morocco's Omar Hilale, is
still as of this writing on
May 1 not on the UNTV website.
We'll have more on this.
Back at
the beginning of March,
then-incoming UNSC President
Matthew Rycroft of the UK
answered Inner City Press on
Burundi by referring to France
as the penholder. On Yemen --
on which the UK holds the pen
-- he said sometimes there is
a benefit to a closed door
discussion. Fine: but what's
the problem with an open
briefing, then closed
consultations? The Free
UN Coalition for Access
will continue to pursue this.
On Yemen
Inner City Press also asked if
the UK's findings as it looks
into more than 250 incidents
of the Saudi led coalition
will be shared with the
Security Council. It remains
unclear.
At the end,
Inner City Press asked Rycroft
if Nick Kay is still a
candidate to be UN Envoy to
Libya. Rycroft said the UK
supports current envoy Martin
Kobler but if he is to be
changed, it should be fast,
there is momentum.
Rycroft
said that civil society will
be invited to participate in
the month's wrap up session, a
first. Boris Johnson will
chair the March 23 meeting on
South Sudan, and something on
Somalia later that day. We'll
have more on this.
***
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