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At UN, as France Demands Action on Myanmar, China Raises Heat Wave Deaths of French Elders

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, May 7 -- Following French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's vow that his Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert would propose in the UN Security Council intervening in Myanmar under the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine, Amb. Ripert did raise the issue, or a first step toward it, in a closed door meeting Wednesday. Ripert proposed scheduling for the afternoon a Council briefing by UN humanitarian coordinator John Holmes. Several countries, which had opposed discussion Myanmar in the Council after the crackdown on monks and protests in the Fall of 2007, objected to the briefing. Council sources told Inner City Press that China's representative asked Ripert pointedly if the Council had ever discussed France's response to the heat-wave deaths of senior citizens, and that Ripert angrily replied that at least in France, government errors can be discussed, including in the press.

            Afterwards Ripert spoke to the press, expressing outrage that even a briefing on humanitarian issues was blocked. Inner City Press asked, in light of Kouchner's invocation of Responsibility to Protect or R2P, which of the four triggers approved by the UN General Assembly in 2005 this fell under: genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity? Ripert responded exasperated, that this was bureaucracy and that France knows a little bit about R2P, since Kouchner "invented the concept." It was pointed out that at the UN, the definition and triggers approved by the General Assembly in 2005 would be used, not Kouchner's definition. Ripert said that France has been conducting naval "operations" near Myanmar, and could "send men."

Kouchner and BAN: hard versus soft diplomacy

            In an earlier press conference, OCHA's John Holmes was asked about R2P and intervening in Myanmar. Holmes said it was too early to consider this, that things are progressing, that such talk might even make things worse.  When Inner City Press conveyed this to Amb. Ripert and asked for his response, Ripert said while it was good that Holmes briefed the press, he should "with all due respect to the press" brief the Council.

            The UK hold the Council presidency for May, and UK Deputy Permanent Representative Karen Pierce told the press she will be speaking with the Council members Wednesday afternoon to see if a briefing by Holmes is possible. When Inner City Press asked Amb. Pierce, as it asked John Holmes, if the UN's special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari should get involved, Amb. Pierce said she understood Holmes keeping humanitarian separate from political. 

            But if Gambari has spent months getting to know the generals who run Myanmar, wouldn't this be a time to use those contacts? Who, then, is playing politics?

   At a recent UN event about the Responsibility to Protect, the UN's Assistant Secretary General on the issue, Edward Luck, said that R2P should remain limited to the four categories and not go beyond them. So if Luck's view is the UN's, Kouchner's call may only be for show -- for, said otherwise, to try to extend and expand the concept.

Footnote / press analysis: one saw against the difference between grand pronouncements by foreign ministers like Kouchner, that a resolution will be introduced in the Security Council, and the reality in the Council: only a briefing was sought. The opposition was entirely foreseeable, calling into question Ripert expressed surprise and outrage. (As an aside, France is campaigning for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, having deployed a special ambassador on human rights to brief select UN media last week).

   The Western countries and the others -- in this case, reportedly including Panama and Costa Rica -- are playing to different audiences. And while both sides play, more people die. And, in an issue Inner City Press will be further covering going forward, promised steps to provide earlier warnings of cyclones and other disasters are not pursued. To be continued.

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Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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