UN Council Convenes Haltingly on Kosovo, Serbia President Reportedly on His Way

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

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 17, updated 3:45 p.m. -- As Kosovo's declaration of independence is celebrated in many quarters, an emergency meeting was convened at the UN Security Council at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Minutes later, a flood of diplomats exited the Council. The meeting, which it now turns out is designed to discuss another meeting, Monday, in the Council, was postponed to 3 p.m. due to a lack of interpreters.

            A Council source told Inner City Press that the interpreters were told on Friday to remain on alert over the weekend, ready to come in on short notice. At 10:30 a.m., UN Conference Services was told to call in the interpreters for the 1 p.m. meeting. But the staffer on duty thought that someone else had made the calls, and did not make them. At 1 p.m., Ambassadors assembled and there were... no interpreters. Reporters were present, because notified by the French mission's deputy spokesperson, not due to any notice from the UN's press office.

            In the world outside of the UN, bureaucracy and protocol were no obstacle. North of Manhattan in the Bronx streets of the Belmont neighborhood, lined with Kososar social clubs selling burek, cars honked their horns, flying red flags emblazoned with the Albanian black eagle. "Times Square one o'clock," a man in front of one of the social clubs told cars that slowed as they passed.  

Flag flaps on car, in Pristina as in The Bronx

            At a wooden podium set up outside the Council chamber, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative Alejandro Wolff argued that Kosovo is unique and will not create a precedent for other regions pushing for independence. Kosovo's uniqueness was established in a Council resolution that Russia voted for back in 1999, Amb. Wolff said. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, sure to disagree, declined to speak upon leaving the Council after 1 p.m., as did Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, surrounded by his chief of staff Vijay Nambiar and deputy chief of staff and main advisor, Kim Won-soo. "Later," they said. But reporters grumbled that Ban intended, even after the meeting, to read and statement and take no questions. We'll see.

Update of 3:45 p.m. -- a staffer emerged to predict that the Council will reconvene Monday at 4 p.m.. Serbia's president, it is said, is coming to New York to speak. Cynics say, in order to be able to tell his domestic political audience he has done everything possible. And what of reports of protests at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, and on a UN courthouse in Mitrovica in northern Kosovo? The questions will be asked.

At the UN just after noon, a body was removed from the South Lawn just outside the Council's windows, a UN worker in her 40s who apparently jumped from the 19th floor, click here for Inner City Press' story.

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These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

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

  Because a number of Inner City Press' UN sources go out of their way to express commitment to serving the poor, and while it should be unnecessary, Inner City Press is compelled to conclude this installment in a necessarily-ongoing series by saluting the stated goals of the UN agencies and many of their staff. Keep those cards, letters and emails coming, and phone calls too, we apologize for any phone tag, but please continue trying, and keep the information flowing.

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