On
UN Peacekeeping, ICP
Asks Japan's Kono
If Any Deployment Before 2022,
Seems Not
By Matthew
Russell Lee, video
UNITED NATIONS,
December 15 – When Japan's
Foreign Minister Taro Kono
took questions at the UN on
December 15, all except one
was about North Korea. Inner
City Press asked Kono about
peacekeeping, after Japan's
deployment to South Sudan
ended with controversy about
record keeping (or
destruction) - will Japan
consider another deployment
before it runs again for the
Council in 2022? Kono said
that any deployment would have
to comply with Japanese law,
and that no deployment is
currently contemplated. So the
campaign will take place in
other ways? Watch this site.
Back on December 1 with Japan
taking over the UN Security
Council for the month, its
last for at least the next
four years, Inner City Press
had many questions it wanted
to ask Ambassador Koro Bessho,
from North
Korea to Myanmar
to UNESCO
to the Secretary General's
trip. But earlier in the day a
bail hearing in the UN bribery
case was announced, and so
Inner City Press headed
downtown, video here.
A the UN, captured in the UNTV
video, two questioners less
than critical of North Korea
were shouted down (video
at 32:50) or faced eye-rolling
and worse (video
from 13:15). No one asked
about Antonio Guterres' trip,
of which Inner City Press
asked the UN Spokesman at
noon. From the UN transcript:
Inner City Press: I want just
also on travel. I've
seen some… some… put together
some online clues and I wanted
to ask you if you can confirm
the Secretary-General is going
to be travelling to Japan in
the near future to a health
conference there?
Spokesman: As you know,
once we're able to confirm
travel, we will. Often
other parties announce trips,
but until we announce it, it's
not official.” Right. We'll
have more on this. In terms of
the Program of Work, there's
North Korea on December 15
and, it seems, December 11 on
human rights. There's Myanmar,
with Japan's position
ambiguous, on December 12.
There's Central African
including Cameroon, where
there are threats of
crackdown, on December 13, and
Yemen on December 5. There's
Peacekeeping Operations, still
awaiting Japan's re-commitment,
on December 21. Inner City
Press has written to the three
listed Japanese spokespeople;
watch this site. Back on
November 1 with the UN
Security Council
presidency being taken
over by Italy, Inner City
Press in person 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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