UN
Admits Impact
of Syria
Sanctions,Won't
Raise in
Kuwait, Met
SPLM-North,
Press
Preferences
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 28 --
Two days
before the UN
makes a pitch
in Kuwait
for $1.5
billion in aid
for Syria and
Syrian
refugees,
Inner City
Press asked UN
humanitarian
official John
Ging about the
current
impact of
sanctions on
humanitarian
activities in
Syria.
Complaints
come
not only from
the Syrian
government but
also NGOs from
Italy and
Denmark, among
others.
Medicine can't
be produced;
even diapers
are
in short
supply. What
does the UN
have to say
about this?
Ging
acknowleged
that the
sanctions are
a problem,
noting the
shortage not
only
medicine but
also fuel.
So
will the UN be
raising the
impact of
sanctions,
Inner City
Press
asked Ging, at
the January 30
meeting in
Kuwait?
Ging
said that
would be up to
the
"participants,"
seeming to
mean the
donors
themselves.
But the UN
didn't leave
it up to
donors
to come up
with the $1.5
billion
estimate. And
isn't the UN
supposed
to lead? To
identify a
problem, even
if one
powerful
donors would
rather ignore,
and raise the
issue?
Inner
City Press
also asked
Ging to answer
a question
that others in
OCHA
have declined
to answer: did
OCHA meet with
the SPLM-North
representatives
who were in
New York last
week?
The UK's Mark
Lyall
Grant to his
credit,
forthright
like Ging,
acknowledged
to Inner City
Press that the
UK
met with them,
despite
Khartoum's
opposition.
French
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Martin
Briens, by
contrast and
like
an OCHA
deputy, said
"no comment."
If
the UN has a
meeting its
existence
should not be
private. By
what
right could
the UN, owned
and ostensibly
controlled by
all 193 of its
member states,
have secret
meetings?
Ging
said yes, OCHA
did meet with
SPLM-North, on
humanitarian
issues. He
expressed
outrage that
eight months
after a
Security
Council
resolution
demanding
access,
"nothing" has
been
accomplished
in Southern
Kordofan and
Blue Nile
states.
Earlier
in
his briefing,
Ging was
talking about
moving aid
through border
crossings to
Syria that not
controlled by
the Syrian
government,
say
it is not
possible for
now but
something
could be done
about it.
Inner City
Press asked
him to
contrast this
with the
possibility of
bringing in
aid to
Southern
Kordofan from
South Sudan.
This, Ging did
not answer.
Footnote:
normally
at a noon
briefing with
a UN official
as a guest,
there is
no hierarchy
of question,
no first
question to
the now-dubious
UN
Correspondents
Association,
a/k/a UN
Censorship
Alliance.
But new
president
Pamela Falk on
Monday
arranged to be
called on
first, and
pointly
thanked Ging
"on behalf of
UNCA."
Then
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesman
Eduardo Del
Buey
called on a
series of
other UNCA
members. As
the last
question,
Inner
City Press
thanked Ging
on behalf of
the new Free
UN Coalition
for
Access,
FUNCA, and
asked about
Sudan and
Syria
sanctions.
It's
ironic because
Falk, while
often not
present at the
UN, has in the
past been a
lawyer about
sanctions,
representing
clients with
business in
Cuba before
the US
Treasury's
OFAC. So since
she claimed
the first
question, why
didn't she ask
about
sanctions, or
something
other than a
softball? Ah,
politics.
When
UNCA inserts
or asserts
itself, so
will FUNCA as
is its right.
The head of
the UN
Department of
Public
Information
has been
informed to
this effect.
The matter of
UNCA's
"exclusive"
glassed-in
bulletin board
and the UN's
"postponed"
threat to tear
down FUNCA's
flyers
remains
unanswered by
the UN, like so
many others.
Watch
this site.
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