On
Colombia, ICP asked
FM Holguin About UNSC Trip, Then
Denied Right to Cover, Still
Restricted
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
April 20 – Amid the litany of
failures and stalemates on the
agenda of the UN Security Council,
the mission in Colombia stands
up as a relatively positive
one. Inner City Press has
asked Colombia's Ambassador
and High Commissioner for
Peace about it, and on April
19 asked the country's foreign
minister María Ángela Holguín
Cuéllar about the upcoming
Council visit which Inner City
Press timely requested to
accompany and cover. Video of
María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar Q&A
here, in Spanish. She said she
had met with the Permanent
Five members and the others at
a lunch; another Ambassador
told Inner City Press of the
need to check if paramilitaries
are "filling in" the spaced
vacated by the FARC. Then on
April 20 from the office of
the UN's holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric came this
form letter, "We regret to
inform you that due to
logistical constraints, we are
not able to accommodate your
request to travel with the
Security Council during their
visit to Colombia." This
stands in contrast to Inner
City Press covering Council
trips to Darfur and South
Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti and
Cote d'Ivoire, and a Ban Ki-moon
(ghoulish) trip to Sri Lanka.
Since then, though, Dujarric
and the UN Department of
Public Information have
evicted Inner City Press from
its office for covering UN corruption,
and still have it confined to
minders and without an office,
fourteen months later. This
must be reversed. We'll have
more on all this.
Colombia's
High Commissioner for Peace
Sergio Jaramillo
spoke with the Press in
New York on August 19, 2016, in
the run-up to the August 26 UN
Security Council meeting about
Colombia. In the sit-down
portion, Inner City Press asked
him about criticism of the
accountability provisions in the
government's deal with the FARC,
and of the status of talks with
the ELN.
Jaramillo said the
criticism is unrealistic; they
had to negotiated with the FARC,
and got them to agree to trials
for grave crimes like rape and
other war crimes. But others get
softer treatment. Jaramillo said
implementation will be the key.
Jaramillo said FARC
has agreed, no illicit activity
to fund their organization. The
UN mission would be storing
weapons in containers, as it did
for example in Nepal. But would
it have any drug or illicit
activity role?
On the ELN, Jaramillo
said as long as they hold
hostages, talks cannot proceed.
On January 6, 2017, Inner
City Press asked the UN's
holdover spokesman Staphan
Dujarric, vidoe here, UN
Transcript here:
Inner City Press: Wanted to ask
about the mission in
Colombia. Obviously, it's
been reported that the four
people have been taken.
Were they members of national
contingents, or were they UN
staff members? Often in
these cases we were told, like,
there's due process or
whatever. Is the video
evidence so compelling that…
Spokesman: They were
repatriated by their home
countries.
Inner City Press: What
countries do they come from?
Spokesman: I don't have
those.
Inner City Press: And was
a decision made by the UN or by
the troop-contributing country?
Spokesman: There was a
discussion between the UN
Mission and the countries… and
the countries concerned.
We can try to see if we can get
you the list of the countries
impacted.
Eight hours later,
nothing. And if it's wrong for
observers to dance with rebels,
why is it OK for "UN
Correspondents" to take selfies
with the new SG? We'll have more
on this.
On August 26, 2016, just
before the Colombia meeting of
the UN Security Council, UK
Deputy Ambassador Peter Wilson
took questions about the
Council's role:
UK DPR Wilson: "This is a piece
of extremely good news. It is a
historic peace agreement. We are
no looking forward to hearing
from the SRSG about how the two
parties want the UN to help take
this peace agreement forward and
help take implementation
forward. We will then consider
very carefully as a Council our
next steps.
Q:
Have you read the report by the
Secretary-General? There’s a
part that’s particularly
interesting for us in Colombia,
which is that we don’t know
exactly who’s going to pay for
the whole mission – between the
mission, the guerrillas, and the
government.
UK DPR Wilson: Well, I think
that’s one of the issues that we
are very much encouraging the UN
to take forward with the
Colombian government. I think
overall the atmosphere in the
Council on this is extremely
happy to see this very good
piece of news, and I think these
are the kinds of details that we
will want to be settling in a
very cooperative matter.
Q: There’s also a possibility of
it being signed here at the UN,
because of the timings actually.
It’s going to be towards the end
of September. What do you think?
UK DPR Wilson: I think all of
those things; those are things
that we really want to take
forward with the Government of
Colombia in a way that satisfies
the parties. So, it is they that
we will be listening to most
closely.
Colombia's
President Santos will speak at
the UN General Assembly on
September 21; there may be an
event for bankers or investment
bankers. Watch this site.
On Colombia back on March 11,
even with the deadline for an
agreement between the government
and the FARC being pushed back,
Germany's Special Envoy on
Colombia Tom Koenigs spoke with
the Press.
He had, he said, met with UN
Under Secretaries General
Feltman, Mulet, Ladsous and
Khare, about the upcoming UN
mission to be headed by
Frenchman Jean Arnault. He noted
the history of cultural exchange
between Germany and Colombia,"
saying that "Germans read a lot
of Garcia Marquez."
And now another
German, Horst Kohler, stands
poised to take the envoy
position in one of the
Council's failures, Western
Sahara...
***
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