At UN,
Palestine
Still Left Out
of 194
Participants
on Names, Lost
in Sea of
Japan
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 9,
updated below
-- More than a
week after Palestine
took its seat
as a full
participant in
the UN Group
of Experts on
Geographical
Names, as
first reported
by Inner City
Press, some
snafus still
remained late
Thursday.
In the
morning,
Palestine's
Riyad Mansour
-- not
referred to
here as the
Permanent
Observer --
pointed out to
Inner City
Press an error
and correction
by the UN
Journal.
The Journal
had referred
to Palestine
as Observer --
but since it
joined UNESCO,
in meetings
held under the
so-called
Vienna format,
Palestine is a
full
participant.
And so the
Journal was
fixed.
But late
Thursday,
along with
issues of the
Sea of Japan
versus the
(Korean) East
Sea, and on
the
Romanization
of names,
Palestine had
been excluded
from the list
of 194
participants
in Paragraph
121.
Another
participant --
not Palestine
-- told Inner
City Press,
"the editor in
chief is the
USA, what do
you expect?"
Who is the
194th, you
ask? The
Holy See, of
course.
In
early July
Palestine
asserted the
same right
regarding the
Arms Trade
Treaty talks,
as
first reported
by Inner
City Press. But
after much
back and
forth, under
the resulting
compromise
Palestine sat
in the front
row beside the
Holy See.
Following
Palestine's
joining UNESCO
as a full
member, it
followed suit
as Inner City
Press reported
at the Law of
the Sea,
to which the
US is not a
party.
At Thursday's
Geographic
Names session
the
Palestinian
representative
-- against,
not an
Observer --
told Inner
City Press
this would be
worked out,
"they are just
not used to us
yet, but they
will
be."
The
seriousness of
the Sea of
Japan issue to
that country's
mission was
represented by
who they sent
to the
meeting: Jun
Yamazaki,
former UN
Assistant
Secretary
General and
Controller.
Ban Ki-moon
may have named
former
Japanese
Permanent
Representative
Yukio
Takasu to the
Department of
Management
post he first
offered to
South Africa
if they would
sell out Navi
Pillay --
click here for
that exclusive
story from
Inner City
Press -- but
this Sea issue
is one on
which Japan
and South
Korea are in
direct
conflict.
And
Ban is headed
to South Korea
tomorrow.
Watch this
site.
Update
of August 10
-- Palestine
got correctly
listed the
next day, in
what became
Paragraph
122...
, 
