On
Sudan
Ritual of UN
SC, Rice Says
It's Only Way
To Keep Tabs,
Critics Say
Colonial,
Outmoded
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 10 -- As
the UN
Security
Council met
Tuesday on
Sudan
and South
Sudan, several
Council
members
complained to
Inner City
Press that the
biweekly
sessions had
become a mere
"ritual"
or "make
work."
"It
is
wasn't for the
Mbeki panel,"
one of them
asked Inner
City
Press,
referring to
the African
Union High
Level trio
chaired by
former South
African
president
Thabo Mbeki,
"what could
the
Security
Council even
claim it's
doing on the
issue?"
This
months'
Council
president
Nestor Osorio
has told Inner
City Press
that
arrangements
are being made
for Mbeki to
come brief the
Security
Council on or
about July 26,
just before a
deadline in
the AU
roadmap.
"That's the
real meeting,"
the complaint
continued.
"This is
just... a
P-Five
problem. It's
colonial."
The
analysis
continued that
the "Western
Three" send as
Permanent
Representatives
diplomats who
are convinced
with the
importance of
the Security
Council.
"Maybe that
was true after
the Second
World War,"
the
non-Western
diplomat
continued.
"But
now the
Council is not
suited to the
problems it is
trying to
address."
A
cynic - this
one - noted
that some
regional
groups still
want the UN
to pay for
their actions,
like ECOWAS'
talked about
reclaiming of
Timbuktu and
Northern Mali.
And who, we
note, is
paying for
Mbeki,
and for the
team of Joint
envoy on Syria
Kofi Annan,
dubbed the
Seven
Million Dollar
Man?
Just
then
US Ambassador
Susan Rice
came out of
the Security
Council, where
they'd spent
the morning on
the Sudan
issue. Inner
City Press
asked
her, are these
sessions
useful? Some
of your
colleague say
they've
become just
ritual.
Ambassador
Rice
turned and
gave a serious
answer, that
these session
are "the
only way to
keep tabs" on
the parties
and their
compliance
with
commitments.
And perhaps it
does serve for
that.
Notably,
several
sources
leaving the
Security
Council after
Ambassador
Rice told
Inner City
Press that the
August 2
deadline
shouldn't be
seen like a
religious
text, as long
as there is
progress.
What is sad is
how
little
concern, at
least as
reflected by
media, there
is with the
Sudan - South
Sudan
conflict, or
even with the
protests
inside Sudan.
Is that the
Security
Council's
fault? Or of
the Western
Three? Watch
this site.
Footnote:
Tuesday's
session was so
low key it was
difficult to
get a
commitment
for a UN TV
stakeout by
Sudan's
Ambassador.
Envoy Haile
Menkerios,
who genially
spoke with
Inner City
Press last
week in the
North Lawn
building, was
not available
to talk, as
even Cyprus
envoy Lisa
Buttenheim had
been. What
has happened,
on the Sudan
issue? And
whose
fault is it?
, 
