At
UN,
Georgia Accuses Russia of Blocking Funding & Arming Libya,
Russia Scoffs
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 1 -- When Grigol Vashadze, Georgia's foreign minister,
scheduled a press conference at the UN on April 1, few knew what it
would be about. Inner City Press went, to ask about a little reported
controversy about how to fund the UN's participation in Geneva about
Abkhazia. In fact, there were no other media questions asked.
Inner
City Press
asked about refugee evictions in Tbilisi -- Vashadze said these had
been misrepresented -- and about Georgia's loss to Russia in the
International Court of Justice the day before. Vashadze said that the
ICJ had just not wanted to get involved. He also said that Russia had
given weapons to Gaddafi in Libya, leading to the deaths of
civilians.
Inner
City Press
ran back to the Security Council, where Russian Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin was still meeting with the incoming President of the Council,
Colombia's Nestor Osorio. When Churkin came out, Inner City Press
asked him about funding the Geneva process, and filmed the Q&A
for possible upload to YouTube. (This will happen later: Churkin made
some on-camera jokes about Georgia).
Churkin
said that
Russia favors it being in the regular UN budget, not a trust fund as
proposed by Georgia. (Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq for the Secretariat's thinking, but as on March
4 from Ban's lead spokesman Martin Nesirky, got no substantive
answer, only dodges.)
Inner
City Press
suggested to Churkin that he watch Vashadze's press conference on the
UN webcast.
Churkin
did in fact
watch it -- he came back to the Security Council at 5 pm for the
emergency consultations on the attack on the UN compound in Mazar i
Sharif and called over all of the reporters waiting. He said that
Russia is not blocking the continued funding of the Geneva process,
and spoke about the ICJ win.
Asked
about
Vashadze's statements about Russia arming Gaddafi, he scoffed and
walked into the Council.
Moments
later, the
Georgians sent Inner City Press a press release about the ICJ ruling.
A UN official stopped and told Inner City Press, of the Geneva
Abkhazia funding issue, “It's a big thing. It's a small thing but
it's a big thing.” And so it goes at the UN.
* * *
At
UN,
Dabbashi
Tells Press of Libya Rebel Strategy, Waiting to Take
Sirte, Credentials
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April
1 -- The Libyan opposition's plans were described
Friday to Inner City Press by former
Gaddafi Deputy Permanent
Representative Ibrahim Dabbashi.
In
a wide ranging
Q&A session, Dabbashi acknowledged that the rebels' attempt at
this time to take Sirte, Gaddafi's birthplace, was a mistake.
We've
told them to hold at Ras Lanuf, Dabbashi said. He said that those who
pushed forward were mostly volunteers, and that from no one “they
will be at the back,” with professional soldiers and commanders at
the front.
Dabbashi
also
argued
that UN Security Council Resolution 1973 modifies that arms
embargo to allow arming Libyans to protect civilians. While this
seemed to contradict what he'd said about more and more professional
soldiers in command of the opposition force, he acknowledge that some
countries stick to the “legal” reading: an arms embargo against
Libya as a whole.
Sirte,
according
to
Dabbashi, will be the turning point. If after a pause the rebels
can take the town, he predicts there will be more defections by
senior military figures.
Asked
if
there are
Western special forces -- or US Central
Intelligence Agency --
personnel working with the rebels, Dabbashi said that wouldn't be
helpful at this time. “The regime would use it,” he said, “even
if they captured only one foreigner.”
Dabbashi
said
that
a quick entry and exit might be acceptable, in extraordinary
circumstance like a major battle about to be lost -- but not in
“regular fighting.”
Minutes
earlier,
Inner
City Press had asked UN acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq to
describe restrictions on Dabbashi's and Shalgam's “courtesy”
passes to the UN. Haq refused to describe the conditions.
But
Inner City
Press is reliably informed that Dabbashi and Shalgam have been told
by the UN not to speak to the media inside the UN, and that the UN
understands this to cover even interviews done on the UN press floor
above the library. (For that reason, the location of this Q&A is
not being stated.)
Dabbashi on UN mic, previously, now can't speak there, but yes here
Dabbashi
told
Inner
City Press that after he spoke at the UN Television stakeout
after the passage of Resolution 1973, “some member states”
complained, saying he and Shalgam no longer represent Libya. He said
he can no longer speak at the stakeout.
Asked
about
an
interview by former Nicaraguan foreign minister Miguel d'Escoto
Brockmann in which he called the UN a weapon of the US Empire,
Dabbashi scoffed and called d'Escoto Brockmann a “mercenary
diplomat... trying to represent countries other than his own.” (It
is not clear if d'Escoto Brockmann would be paid by Gaddafi for his
services.)
Dabbashi
said
that
the Musa Koussa letter appointing or purporting to appoint d'Escoto
Brockmann is moot after Koussa's defection, and also wasn't signed by
Koussa but rather his deputy.
Dabbashi
did
say,
however, that the letter was given “directly” to the Secretariat,
something that Haq has denied. (Then again, Haq has also claimed that
the UN canceled d'Escoto Brockmann's 10 am press conference on March
31 because, suddenly, work was needed on the briefing room.)
Inner
City
Press
asked Dabbashi about Gaddafi's and the rebels' relations with the two
opposing forces in Cote d'Ivoire, and in Gabo. Dabbashi said that
Laurent Gbagbo remains close with Gaddafi, so “with the change, we
win one.” He said that Gabon and Ali Bongo have in essence been
bought by Gaddafi.
Inner
City
Press
pointed out that Gabon nonetheless voted in favor of Resolution 1970.
“That was pressure from France,” Dabbashi said. “On their own,
it would have been difficult for Gabon to vote for it.”
On
what he called
the diplomatic “game” at the UN, Dabbashi said he is trying for a
meeting of the UN Credentials Committee “next week,” to be
recognized as representing Libya. He said that “some countries”
are still resisting it. Watch this site.
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