On
Colombia Inner City Press Asked
UN About Election of Duque Now
US Pence's Read-Out
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
June 22 – 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. Will
that continue to be the case?
On June 18, Inner City Press
asked UN spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: on the
election in Colombia of Mr.
[Ivan] Duque, do you… are
there any sort of plans… one,
has the Secretary-General
reached out to congratulate
him? And, two, are there any
thoughts of the UN of how well
this will impact either the…
the… the FARC [Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia]
peace deal or the UN Mission
there?
Spokesman: "We, first of
all, commend the people and
the authorities of Colombia
for the conclusion on Sunday
of a cycle of legislative and
presidential elections this
year that were the most
peaceful in decades in
Colombia. The ability of
Colombians to vote through the
country without restriction
and in record numbers is a
remarkable achievement of the
peace process. The
Secretary-General welcomes
President-elect Ivan Duque's
early calls for healing the
divisions among Colombians,
and he wishes him success in
this crucial task. As
the Government transition now
gets under way, the
Secretary-General confirms the
strong commitment of the
United Nations to accompany
Colombia's Government and
people in consolidating the
hard-won gains of peace and in
achieving reconciliation after
so many years of conflict."
Yeah. Now on June 22, it's US
Vice President Mike Pence who
has called Duque and issued
this read out: "Vice President
Mike Pence spoke on the phone
today with President-elect of
Colombia Ivan Duque to
congratulate him for his
electoral victory on Sunday
and stress the necessity of
moving decisively to cut drug
production and trafficking.
The Vice President reiterated
the United States’
long-standing commitment to
its close partnership with
Colombia, and discussed key
issues including the ongoing
peace process. The two leaders
discussed at great length the
dire humanitarian crisis and
authoritarian conditions in
Venezuela, and committed to
continue to press for the
restoration of democracy
there." On April 19 Inner City
Press asked Colombia's Vice
President
Oscar Naranjo
Trujillo about
the lock-down
in Catatumbo
(he defended
it) and
foreign
minister María
Ángela Holguín
Cuéllar who
her countries
will vote for
in the UN
President of
the General
Assembly race,
Honduras or
Ecuador
(Honduras is
the answer).
Video here.
Back in April 2017 Inner City
Press has asked Colombia's
Ambassador and High
Commissioner for Peace about
it, and on 19 April 2017 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. Meanwhile after
Colombia's former President
Uribe met Donald Trump at
Mar-a-Lago, Florida Senator
Marco Rubio denied having
anything to do with it, while
noting that Uribe is a sitting
Senator. On April 24, even
ghoulishly accompanied and
watched by a UN Department of
Public Information minder,
Inner City Press was told
that the meeting happened
because Uribe was invited by a
Mar-a-Lago member. Access is
everything, as the UN tries to
use and abuse with regard to
the investigative Press. Back
on April 19, Holguin 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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