As
UK
Calls for Myanmar UN Envoy Replacement for Nambiar, He
Brushes Off Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 19 -- After the UN Security
Council met Thursday about
Myanmar, UN envoy Vijay Nambiar explicitly refused to answer even a
single question from the Press.
Rushing out of the Council, Nambiar
made a brushing-away motion with his hand and disappeared down a
corridor. This despite a standing request by the UN Correspondents
Association that he hold a press conference and take questions.
The
Permanent
Representative of the UK Mark Lyall Grant did speak to the Press. He
recounted that democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has suggested that
need for a full time UN envoy, adding that the UK “has long
believed that it would be good to have a permanent, full time envoy
to regularly visit” Burma.
Lyall
Grant said
that while Nambiar “felt the tone of what the government was doing
since the election was better, more open than it had been before,”
the UK sees “no effective response to key demands of international
community.”
The
military
dominated government has given “amnesty only just over two percent
of political prisoners, there are still over two thousand.” Lyall
Grant was dismissive of “taking one year off a sixty five years
sentence of student leaders, and the ninety three years given to Shan
community” leadership.
He
added that
“there has not yet been any inclusive dialogue with opposition
outside Parliament.” In the run up to Nambiar's trip, Inner City
Press asked without answer if he would be meeting with ethnic
minorities.
Inner
City Press
has previously reported calls for a full time replacement to Nambiar
as envoy, by the UK along with former Security Council member Mexico
and others. But Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has made no move to
appoint a full time envoy, instead continuing to send his chief of
staff Nambiar to Myanmar, then refusing to take questions when he
comes back.
Nambiar previously seen from behind, no Qs taken
Ban
Ki-moon, too,
has become resistant to taking questions from the press, at least in
New York. Despite multiple requests that he hold the promised monthly
press conference - the last was in January, four months ago -- Ban
has not held a press conference.
Since
he last held
a shorter stakeout, he has for example said he was “relieved that
justice was done” in the killing of Osama bin Laden, a position
that differs from the UN's own human rights commissioner Navi
Pillay's.
Ban
on May 18
granted an interview to one wire service, and used it to state that
if member states want him for a second term as Secretary General, he
is ready to serve.
Ban's
spokesman Martin Nesirky declined Inner City
Press' request for a transcript. He said he would be getting
clarifications from Nambiar, but none has been given, including any
UN response to the Myanmar government prohibiting reporting of ASSK's
comments after meeting Nambiar, and on Myanmar's push to head ASEAN.
Watch this site.
* * *
After
Myanmar
“Sick Joke” on Political Prisoners, UN Nambiar Won't Take
Questions
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 19 -- Since his return from Myanmar, UN envoy Vijay
Nambiar has been asked to take questions from the press about his
itinerary and statement there, which has been criticized by human
rights groups and others.
But
the UN has
insisted that Nambiar will not speak with the press, only with the
so-called Group of Friends on Myanmar and, behind closed doors, with
the Security Council.
When
UN envoys and
officials return come to report to the Security Council, they often
take questions from the press, at the UN TV stakeout or, still on the
record, in the hall outside the Council.
Valerie Amos
does it on
camera, as does Staffan de Mistura, envoy to Kabul. Even Terje Roed
Larsen spoke on the record earlier this month, as did Lamberto
Zannier, envoy to Kosovo. So why not Nambiar, who doubles as Ban
Ki-moon's chief of staff?
On
May 17, Inner
City Press asked
Ban spokesman Martin Nesikry about this:
Inner
City
Press: Myanmar, since the visit by the Special Adviser and Chief
of Staff, Mr. Nambiar, announced a one-year reduction in the prison
terms of some prisoners and the release of prisoners that some are
calling just the common criminals and that prisoners are staying in.
Human Rights Watch has called it, quote, a sick joke. And I am
wondering what the UN calls these moves? If they are encouraging, if
they are… what’s the UN’s statement on this?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well, we’ve obviously seen the reports on this
announcement by the Myanmar authorities. The exact scope of what has
been announced remains unclear to us so far. What Mr. Nambiar, the
Special Adviser, said during his recent visit was that all political
prisoners needed to be released, and he stated that publicly and
repeatedly in his meetings with officials in Myanmar. Clearly, we
would hope that the measures taken by the Myanmar authorities would
be consistent both with the new Government’s recent commitments
and, importantly, the expectations of the international community.
Inner
City
Press: Just one follow-up on that. The director of Human Rights
Watch has said that, has criticized Mr. Nambiar publicly for not
raising the issue of accountability, i.e., a commission of inquiry or
the thing that’s been, that event the Special Rapporteur called
for, and I wonder, one, if there is a response by Mr. Nambiar? If he
will give a briefing and if you could give a readout on the meeting
of the Secretary-General with the Director of Human Rights Watch on
Friday? Whether this issue was raised and whether Sri Lanka was
raised, as well?
Spokesperson:
On the latter, no, we will not give a readout on that meeting.
Nambiar last time, Press excluded, new request not shown
They
did
meet, as the Secretary-General does with representatives of
leading non-governmental organizations at various stages. On the
first part of the question, as I think you know, Mr. Nambiar is
expected to brief Security Council members at some point, and
probably the Group of Friends as well, at some point; not yet sure
exactly when. And I am sure, however, that as a result of those
meetings there will be a little bit more detail about the visit. I
don’t have that detail at the moment, including the answer to the
question about accountability, although you did ask me about that
already — I can’t remember exactly when it was — and as I
mentioned, the fact that it’s not explicitly stated in the
statement, the press statement that Mr. Nambiar issued and read out,
doesn’t necessarily mean that topics were not raised just because
they were not mentioned in the statement.
But
why not have
Nambiar take a question or two to clarify or amplify his statement?
On May 18 Inner City Press asked, “it was the Secretary-General who
said he encouraged his highest officials to be accessible to the
media to describe the work of the agency. And if his own Chief of
Staff is unwilling to do it on a trip he just made to Myanmar, what
does it say?”
Watch
this site.
* * *
