At
UN, Churkin
Says US Broke
Solidarity on
Syria, Mbeki
Invited Mbeki,
Qs on S. Sudan
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
4 -- When
Russian
Permanent
Representative
Vitaly
Churkin took
questions
Monday about
his upcoming
month as
President
of the UN
Security
Council, Inner
City Press
asked him
about Syria,
Sudan and
South Sudan.
After
deadly car
bombing in
Damascus also
impacted the
Russian
embassy
there, Churkin
circulated a draft
press
statement, the
same as is
routinely
adopted by the
Council after
such attacks.
The US
proposed
an additional
paragraph
about the
Assad
government.
Monday
Churkin told
Inner City
Press this was
a “killer”
amendment,
that the US
had broken
solidarity by
proposing it.
Inner
City Press
asked about
the now
biweekly
Council
sessions on
Sudan and
South Sudan.
Churkin said
they might be
“excessive,”
but this
month Thabo
Mbeki of the
High Level
Panel will be
invited to one
of
the two
sessions, set
for March 12
and 27.
Of
the four
Russian pilots
killed when
South Sudan
shot down a
helicopter in
December,
Inner City
Press asked
about the
status of
the
investigation,
and what the
UN Mission in
South Sudan
(UNMISS)
had told the
pilots about
the danger in
the area.
Churkin
said
he will meet
with UNMISS
chief Hilde
Johnson on
March 6, and
has
asked for a
report from
UNMISS before
the Council's
March 21
session
on the
Mission. There
are other
questions too,
he said, about
what
the Mission is
accomplishing.
Of
Russia's
thematic
debate on
Afghanistan,
Churkin was
asked if “the
Soviets” had
invited the
Taliban. Well,
no. Churkin
declined to
answer a
question if
Russia was
trying to
undermine
language in
the
Commission on
the Status of
Women by
seeking
exemptions for
tradition
and culture.
Churkin
quipped
that it was
clear the
journalist
does not
respect
tradition
and culture,
but declined
to answer
further.
Inner
City Press
began by
thanking
Churkin for
the briefing
on behalf of
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
and hoping to
hear from him
--
or, of course,
Deputy Pankin
-- at the
stakeout
throughout the
month.
The UN
Department of
Public
Information,
or at least one
official
under
pressure, has
tried to call
into question
FUNCA's right
to
press the UN
for reforms.
But as an
analogy, FUNCA
can be viewed
as
the CSTO to
the others'
NATO. Watch
this site.
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