As S.
Korea Serves
Crepes, Mali
Infighting
Panned, Russia
Focus Kabul
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 28 –
South Korea is
a country on
the rise, and
its end of UN
Security
Council
presidency
reception
Thursday night
reflected it.
There were not
only shrimp
and filet
mignon tips
and sushi,
there were
crepes and
three large
rooms full of
diplomats.
There
was incoming
president for
March Vitaly
Churkin of
Russia - his
thematic
debate will be
on Afghanistan
-- and Chinese
Permanent
Representative
Li Baodong,
who earlier on
Thursday told
the Press that
any Council
message to the
Democratic
People's
Republic of
Korea would
have to be
“proportionate.”
There
was French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard Araud,
and in another
room there was
an
acknowledgment
that the
current chief
of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row in the
post,
essentially
works for
France.
Jeffrey
Feltman of the
US, it was
said, “less
so.”
Talk
turned to
Mali, which a
well placed
source told
Inner City
Press has
begun to
resemble a
figurative
“gang rape,”
with Said
Djinnit of
UNOWA trying
to dominate
Bamako and
relegate
Romano Prodi
-- literally
“he of Rome”
to the rest of
the Sahel.
The
question
arose: who is
paying
Romano's large
Roman staff?
It comes from
Ban Ki-moon's
slush fund,
unvetted as
yet by the
ACABQ. There
should be hell
to pay -
SAhel, that
is.
There were the
Permanent
Representatives
of non
permanent
Council
members
Australia,
Morocco and
Luxembourg.
There
was Masood
Khan of
Pakistan, who
earlier on
Thursday as first
reported
by Inner City
Press got a
vice
chairmanship
for the Arms
Trade Treaty
talks after
Palestine
dropped out,
as well as the
Humanitarian
segment of
ECOSOC after
Sudan stood
down.
The
latter was
largely at the
demand of the
US, whose
budget and
reform maven
Joe Torsella
spent Thursday
night tweeting
about the
upcoming
Budget
Committee
session. He is
targeting
first class
air flights,
ostensibly by
interns. But
what about Ban
Ki-moon's own
travel costs?
In the
UN Staff Union
meeting which
voted “No
Confidence” in
him, the
question arose
of how much
Ban is
spending on
travel.
Shouldn't Joe
Torsella be
able to
extract and
publicize this
number? Watch
this site.
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