At UN,
Russia &
Ukraine
Tangle, Power
on
Peacekeeping,
Venezuela on
Palestine
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 23 --
When China as
president of
the UN
Security
Council for
February
scheduled a
debate to
“Reflect on
history,
reaffirm the
strong
commitment to
the purposes
and principles
of the Charter
of the UN,” 75
countries
signed up to
speak.
Russian
Foreign
Minister
Lavrov slammed
not only the
occupation of
Iraq, but also
events in Kiev
in the last
year.
Later, after
the 15 Council
members had
all spoken,
Ukraine's
Pavlo Klimkin
said his
country is
considering
“requesting
the United
Nations to
deploy a
peacekeeping
operation in
Ukraine.”
Klimkin was
scheduled to
meet with UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon later
on Monday. But
the UN's
read-out of
Ban's
telephone call
with Klimkin
on February 20
said that “on
the
possibility of
peacekeeping
mission in
eastern
Ukraine, the
Secretary-General
informed the
Foreign
Minister that
the United
Nations would
stand guided
by any
decision the
Security
Council would
make on this
issue.”
Lavrov's
meeting with
Ban had been
scheduled to
begin at noon,
and he only
came out of
the elevator
back onto the
second floor
at 12:45 pm. A
forty five
minute meeting
with Ban? How
long would
Klimkin get?
Before
Klimkin's
speech, US
Ambassador
Samantha Power
spoke not only
on Ukraine and
Syria but also
Sudan, noting
that the
Security
Council was
silent when
Sudan blocked
UNAMID access
to investigate
the rapes in
Tabit, at
least for the
second time.
That's true.
But didn't
the US just
lift some
sanctions on
Sudan?
Power also
noted, as Ban
Ki-moon as
opening
speaker had,
that the UN
Charter starts
“We the
peoples.” Has
the US tried
to get a UN
Freedom of
Information
Act, for
peoples?
That's what
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
is pushing
for.
China's
Foreign
Minister Wang
Yi said some
“even attempt
to...
whitewash past
crimes of
aggression.”
While his
reference
seemed
directed at
Japan, when he
came to the
stakeout and
said he had
time for two
questions, the
head of UNCA
-- the UN's
Censorship
Alliance
-- bumbled
through two
questions
without asking
about this.
Instead he
asked, or
seemed to ask,
do you think
Syria can
transition
without Assad?
These set-aside
questions, to
a FOIA-exposed
censor,
is not consistent
with press
freedom.
Ambassador
Power linked
UN
Peacekeeping
and human
rights. Inner
City Press has
exclusively
asked, in
print and at
the UN's noon
briefing, does
DPKO under
Herve Ladsous
use human
rights
abusers, for
example from
Bangladesh?
Speaking of
peacekeeping,
Spain's
Ignacio Ybanez
talked about
UN principles.
One waited to
hear of
peacekeeper
killed in
Lebanon: will
that report be
made public?
The
UK's Mark
Lyall Grant
cited the
Peace
Operations
Review. Will
that address the
sale of posts
in DR Congo
& Haiti?
Venezuela's
Delcy
Rodriguez said
Palestine must
be a full
member of the
UN, under
international
law.
New Zealand's
Murray McCully
said that the
UNSC agenda is
jammed up with
bureaucratic
briefings
rather than
real
deliberation -
entirely
true.
And so it goes
at the UN.
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