Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

At UN, Syria “Postponing its Candidacy” for HRC to 2014, No Dera'a Answers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 11 -- The Asian Group met Wednesday morning in the UN's North Lawn building, with whether Kuwait would replace Syria as its candidate for the Human Rights Council on the agenda. The Press watched through the wide windows of the ECOSOC Chamber as Syria and Kuwait both spoke.

It's done, a Deputy Permanent Representative exiting the Chamber told the Press. All they have to do is gavel it.

But before they did, UN Security moved the press away from the windows, and then from the Chamber as a whole.

When finally the ambassadors emerged, Syria's Permanent Representative Bashar Ja'afari put the best face on his stand-down. It's just a postponement of our candidacy, he told the press.

Why? To focus on other priorities, he said, not without irony.

Inner City Press asked about Dera'a, and whether the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs will be allowed in to assess needs. But Ja'afari did not answer. His Kuwaiti equivalent said they would take the seat from 2011 to 2013, then Syria will run for 2014 to 2016. We'll see.

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At UN on Syria, Moves for a Resolution As Non-Binding As 1st Libya Statement

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 10 -- The next moves on Syria in the UN Security Council began to emerge on Tuesday. Numerous sources told Inner City Press that the move is to put into a draft resolution the type of non-binding, non-punative Council press statement as was issued on Libya on February 22.

The idea is that provision such as were contained in the subsequent Libya Resolution 1970 -- sanctions and referral to the International Criminal Court -- have absolutely no chance of passing the Council at this point.

Meanwhile an aspiration statement as was made on Libya, a “shot across the bow” as one diplomat put it to Inner City Press, might have a chance.

But when Inner City Press asked Chinese Permanent Representative Li Baodong about this “Western” strategy, he said “I don't think they can do it.”

Even a Western diplomat complained to Inner City Press that with the way things have gone in Libya, Council passage of a “first step” text on Syria is unlikely for now.

Last week Inner City Press reported that the UK was moving toward introducing a resolution, which unlike the previous draft press statement could not be blocked by a single non-Permanent member like Lebanon. Watch this site.

Footnote: at the UN's May 10 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked UN acting deputy spokesman Farhan Haq how much of UNRWA's operations in Syria have been suspended, and whether UNRWA has been able to provide any information on the humanitarian situation in Syria to the UN Secretariat. Haq said, we don't reveal our sources. One wag wondered what sources the UN actually has in Syria.

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At UN on Syria Much Posturing, No Text or TV Camera, Libyan Ships

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 9 -- When Syria was raised in the Security Council on Monday afternoon, it was only about the UN's now postponed humanitarian assessment mission to Deraa.

Afterward Inner City Press asked Humanitarian Coordinator Valerie Amos about UN access to Deraa. She said that she's gotten assurances the team can get in to Deraa later this week.

Such access had already been promised, then not provided. Leaving the Security Council, German Permanent Representative Wittig told the Press that he had spoken strongly against the humanitarian crisis in Syria.

Another Western diplomat said, carefully, that while there is so far no draft resolution on Syria, they are trying to find “what the market will bear” in terms of condemning Syria. Note: they might want to check with Russia.

Amos on Libya border; the Search continues

When the session was over, Council President Gerard Araud begrudgingly came to the stakeout -- where, in fact, the UN TV camera had already been turned off.

Given his attitude, no one told him that the TV cameras were dark. He answered a question about harm caused in Libya by NATO bombing by saying, there is no question. But there are questions, and they will keep being asked.

Inner City Press asked Valerie Amos what the UN knows about the deaths of those seeking to flee Libya by sea. She answered about two reports: a ship with 72 people on it, out at sea for 16 days, with only 11 survivors, and a ship with 300 to 600 people onboard sinking. Of the latter, she said there've been reports of a NATO ship nearby.

The French reply that the nearest ship was 100 miles away -- 100 nautical miles. We'll see.

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At UN on Syria, Russia Tells France to Stick to Lebanon, No Resolution Yet

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 6 -- There was a fight between two members of the Security Council in closed door consultations about whether the crackdown in Syria is a threat to international peace and security, UN envoy on Council Resolution 1559 Terje Roed-Larsen told the Press on Friday morning.

Further reporting by Inner City Press identifies the two members as France and Russia. Specifically, multiple sources tell Inner City Press that Russian Permanent Representative Vitaly Churkin re-entered the Council and took issue with his French counterpart Gerard Araud, saying that the 1559 briefing is about Lebanon, not Syria.

Other Western members of the Council note that they too, not only France, raised Syria, as linked with the situation in Syria. But, they say, Churkin was in and out of the meeting, and heard only Araud, who is this month's Security Council president.

The result of this statement by Roed-Larsen, who refused to answer Inner City Press about him taking a UN staff member with him on a purportedly personal trip to Bahrain last month, were reports that the Western drive for a resolution on Syria was raised and shot down on Friday.

In fact, Western sources say, it has yet to be formally raised.

The backdrop is how far the Western countries have gone with the mandate gave them in Libya, with absentions from Russia and China. Now other countries, including other abstainers but even some members which voted in favor of Resolution 1973 on Libya, are dubious about even beginning a similar process on Syria.

Meanwhile, while Araud publicly complained on May 3 that the Security Council's procedures are “boring,” just a bunch of speeches, complaints are made that a reform instituted under the UK presidency in November 2010, of letting members cut it in consultation, as been ended by the French, demanding that countries sign in for their interventions. We aim to have more on this - watch this site.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund. Video Analysis here

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

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