As
Iran
Bombing Condemned by UN Council, Jundollah Not Named
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 16, updated -- The bombing in Iran claimed by Jundollah, like
that in Uganda claimed by Al Shabab, will be condemned by the UN
Security Council on Friday afternoon.
Hillary
Clinton, the Secretary
of State of the U.S. which Iran has accused of supporting Jundollah
was quick to condemn the bombing, and to name Jundollah.
Now the Security Council will echo
Hillary, using the same boiler
plate statement it applied to the
carnage in Kampala -- not naming the perpetrator, even after credit
has been claimed.
The
Council's
Uganda statement on Monday did not blame Al Shabab by name. Inner City
Press was told that the statement was circulated to
Council members before Al Shabab had taken credit. In this case,
Jundollah took credit more quickly, and Hillary Clinton named the
group in her statement.
But the
decision is made, not to name the perpetrator. A Council diplomat
who confirmed the absence of Jundollah from the statement as of 3:30
p.m. shrugged when asked no blame was being cast.
Hillary Clinton in front of Security Council, Jundollah not shown
Friday,
the
Council is engaged in a day long debate on “conflict prevention.”
As such, the Iran bombing statement could more easily be amended to
include the name Jundollah and still be circulated and approved
before this month's Council President, Joy Ogwu of Nigeria, reads it
out loud at the stake out.
At
the stakeout,
even though it is now July 16, the placement of the flags has yet to
be changed. When May turned into June, with the Council in a marathon
meeting about the assault on the flotilla to Gaza, the flag and name
plates were changed at the stroke of midnight. This month, it has
taken sixteen days and counting.
Update
of
5:11 p.m. -- with the “conflict prevention” debate over, there
is a lull. The Iran bombing press statement will not be read out
until 6:05 pm, Inner City Press is told, “to give time for members
if they want to object.” But no one will, we predict. The statement
is pure boiler plate and does not mention Jundollah. A pro-Iran
reporter mutters, why so late, I want to go home.
Update
of
6:18 p.m. -- the Iran bombing statement has been read by Council
president Joy Ogwu of Nigeria, echoing the Uganda bombing statement
of four days ago. Inner City Press asked, since Jundollah has taken
credit, Iran has accepted the claim and blames two Permanent Council
members - the US and UK - for supporting Jundollah, why not name or
at least discuss it? She answered that due process and investigation
are necessary. Investigation by who? The Iranian authorities, she
says.
Nigeria
is feting
its foreign minister tonight, not at Nigeria House on 44th Street but
13 blocks north. We have to get out and about, they say...
* * *
In
Wake
of
Uganda Bombing, UNSC Statement Does Not Assign Blame, Even After Al
Shabab Takes Credit
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July
12, updated -- A day after the Kampala double bombing which
killed more than 60 people, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had yet
to issue any kind of statement. In front of the Security Council on
Monday morning, one non-permanent member's spokesperson wondered
under what agenda item the Council might issue a statement: Somalia?
Another
spokesperson
said
moves were afoot for the issuance of a press
statement, later in the day. Would it say who is responsible? After
the bombing of trains in Madrid, the Council issued a statement
blaming it on ETA. When Al Qaeda later took responsibility, the
Council's statement was never retracted.
Here,
nearly
all
speakers including Uganda authorities are pointing the finger at
Islamist Somali insurgents. They had vowed retaliation for the
Ugandan and Burundian AMISOM peacekeepers' shelling of a market in
Mogadishu. Others pointed out the targeting of "Ethiopian Village,"
given antagonism between irridentist Somalia and Ethiopia. Motive is
certainly there-- and, the media pointed out,
opportunity.
As the draft
text of the press statement was distributed to members, a Council
diplomat told Inner City Press it did not assign blame, only the
Council's "standard terrorist attack language." Might that change?
Update
of
3:20
p.m. -- Nigeria's Ambassador, the Council's president for
July, read out a four paragraph statement. As Inner City Press
predicted this morning, it did not assign blame. But in the interim,
the spokesman
for
Al Shabab has taken credit for the bombings, saying
they were months in the planning.
Inner
City Press asked Nigeria's
Ambassador on camera why blame was not ascribed, and if this might
not discourage countries from sending peacekeepers to Somalia. She
declined the first, and to the second question said “there is a
peace to keep in Somalia.” Video here.
Afterward,
Inner
City
Press was told that Al Shabab's confession came after the
statement was circulated and concurrence obtained. They didn't want
to delay it. But wouldn't it have been stronger if more specific? An
Ethiopian diplomat spoke about Eritrea. If ten Taliban are coming off
the 1267 Al Qaeda sanctions list, does that mean there's room for
Al-Shabab? Watch this site.
In Kampala, the Ethiopian Village - UN statements not yet shown
Incoming
UN
envoy
on Somalia, Tanzania's former Ambassador Mahiga, spoke to Inner City
Press at the UN in New York last week, including about the
peacekeepers' use of “long range artillery” and the civilian
casualties caused. Will Mahiga take this so-called “collateral
damage” more seriously than Ould Abdallah did? Watch this site.
Footnote:
Inside
the
Council on Monday morning, there was a minute of silence
for the dead of Srebrenica. What there thought of the UN's role?
, 
