Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

At UN, Susan Rice of US Says d'Escoto Can't Represent Libya on a Tourist Visa

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 30, updated 6:50pm -- With former Nicaraguan foreign minister Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann scheduled to give a UN press conference on March 31 after Gaddafi's then foreign minister Musa Koussa nominated d'Escoto Brockmann as Libya's Permanent Representative to the UN, Susan Rice of the US late on March 30 threw cold water on the nomination and even the press conference.

  Ambassador Rice announced that while d'Escoto Brockmann was born in the United States, he previously renounced his US citizenship. She said he is in the US on a tourist visa and, she argued, cannot represent any country at the UN on such a visa.

  She questioned the validity of Koussa's letter, given reports that Koussa has defected from Libya, and said that even if it were valid, d'Escoto Brockmann would have to leave the US and re-apply for a G-1 visa.

  By implication, such an application could be denied by the US -- despite its Host Country Agreement with the UN -- just as Koussa claimed the US denied a visa to recent nominee Ali Treki, who like d”Escoto Brockmann is a former President of the General Assembly.

Rice questioned why d'Escoto Brockmann is being allowed to hold a press conference in the UN, since he doesn't represent anyone.

To be fair, Inner City Press notes the following: other former PGAs, like Srjan Kerim, routinely come into the UN. In fact, former Libyan Permanent Representative Shalgam and his deputy Ibrahim Dabbashi are still allowed in on “courtesy” passes, and speak at the UN stakeout.

D'Escoto & Ban, previously: now a visa problem?

Many have asked Inner City Press if a country can be represented by a non-national. The ambassador of Palau, for example, is an American lawyer who represented the country as it applied to join the UN. (He is married to a woman from Palau).

During the General Assembly's budget votes in December, several countries were represented by non nationals, often New Yorkers who are drivers for their missions.

Inner City Press is told by UN sources that d'Escoto Brockmann was inside the UN building on March 30, in a UN TV studio doing a two way interview to Latin America. Does Ambassador Rice think that shouldn't have happened either?

  Rice said that if d'Escoto purports to represent Libya while on a tourist visa, he'll find that visa status reviewed....

Update of 6:50 pm - now the UN's current Media Alert no longer lists any d'Escoto Brockmann press conference for March 31, it's said to be "postponed." Watch this site.