For
Italy's UNSC Month, Burundi and
Yemen Aid, CAR But Cameroon
UNanswered
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photos
and video
UNITED NATIONS,
November 1 – With the UN
Security Council presidency
for November being taken over
by Italy, on November 1 Inner
City Press asked Ambassador
Sebastiano Cardi about Yemen,
Burundi, the Central African
Republic and Cameroon.
Periscope video here.
Cardi said that there was
discussion of Yemen in the
morning's closed door
consultations and to expect a
briefing on humanitarian
issues and maybe the political
track. On Burundi, on which
Inner City Press cited a
Commission of Inquiry member's
criticism of the Security
Council's lack of follow
through in deploying the 228
police it supposedly mandated,
Cardi said that new
(part-time) envoy Michel
Kafando will brief the Council
on November 20. Since Cardi
had cited Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' visit to the
Central African Republic in
connection with a November 6
meeting of the Security
Council, Inner City Press
asked if Guterres himself will
make the presentation and if
he might include a briefing on
Cameroon, which he also
visited if only the
Presidential palace, about the
Anglophone regions from which
UNHCR says refugees are
pouring into Nigeria. Cardi
said the SRSG will brief on
behalf of the Secretary
General; the Cameroon question
was not answered. For the Free
UN Coalition for Access,
Inner City Press asked Cardi
to come to the Council
stakeout frequently, as he had
in the morning. He said that
he will. Watch this site. Back
on September 1 with the UN
Security Council presidency
being taken over by Ethiopia's
Tekeda Alemu, Inner City Press
asked Ambassador Alemu four
questions, the answers to
which sketch out the Ethopian
government's worldview. Video
here.
In response to Inner City
Press asking why Burundi,
where even the UN says there
is a risk of genocide, is not
on his September Program of
Work nor on the agenda of the
Council's visit to Addis
Ababa, Alemu said that you
can't compare Burundi to
Central African Republic, that
Burundi has “strong state
institutions.” But it is that
very “strength,” which some
say the country shares with
Ethiopia, and with until
recently military-ruled
Myanmar about which Inner City
Press also asked, that has led
to the human rights
violations. In this context,
Inner City Press asked Alemu
about the Oromo protests - and
crackdown - in his country. He
diplomatically chided Inner
City Press for not having
asked in private, saying that
social media has played a
dangerous role. On the other
hand, when Inner City Press
asked Alemu at the end about
the murders of two UN experts
Michael Sharp and Zaida
Catalan, he replied that while
the DR Congo is due to
sovereignty the one to
investigate the murders, the
gruesome nature of the
killings put a “great
responsibility” on the DR
Congo. We'l have more on this.
Alamy photos here.
Earlier on September 1 in
Alemu's briefing to countries
not on the Security Council,
Bangladesh specifically asked
that the Council remain seized
of the situation in Myanmar.
When Inner City Press asked
Alemu about this, he said he
still had to inform himself
more about that situation. The
Security Council is traveling
to Addis from September 5
through 9, when alongside
African Union consultations
the Council's member will meet
for an hour with Prime
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn,
Alemu said. The Council will
receive the “maiden briefings”
late in the month of the new
Under Secretaries General of
OCHA and on Counter-Terrorism.
There will be peacekeeping on
September 20, during the High
Level week of the UN General
Assembly, and Yemen on
September 26. But tellingly,
there will not be Burundi.
Watch this site.
***
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