At
UN,
As Syria
Defense Moves
from Bias to
German
Gypsies, "95
Would Be Good"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 21 --
Syria's UN
Ambassador
Bashar
Ja'afari on
Monday moved
between the
Security
Council and a
General
Assembly
committee
meeting in the
UN's North
Lawn building,
escalating his
responses
first to a UN
briefing then
a resolution
of
condemnation
introduced by
Germany.
Inner
City Press
asked Ja'afari
what he
thought of the
morning
briefing by UN
envoy
Robert Serry.
Ja'afari
replied that
Serry is
biased, and
wants to
shift focus on
the Middle
East agenda
item away from
Israel and its
occupations,
including of
the Syrian
Golan.
Serry
said that
Lebanon not
supporting the
Arab League
vote to
suspend Syria
caused
problems in
Lebanon. When
Inner City
Press asked
about it,
Ja'afari
scoffed and
said that
Serry might
want to "talk
about the
weather in
Lebanon."
(Later
it was
explained to
Inner City
Press that
Lebanon
scrupulously
abstains on
all matters
Syria at the
United
Nations, but
that the Arab
League
vote was
somehow
different. We
aim to have
more on this.)
In
the afternoon
with much
fanfare, and
rare UN
Television
coverage of a
committee
meeting,
German UN
Ambassador
Peter Wittig
introduced a
draft
resolution on
human rights
in Syria.
From his
prepared text,
circulated
fifteen
minutes before
the session,
and its
actually
delivery,
Bahrain joined
as a sponsor.
(One wag said
Bahrain is
lucky
it doesn't
have a
resolution
against it, in
the
committee.)
Here,
Ja'afari's
response went
further. He
said that
Germany and
France
mistreat Roma
that is
Gypsies within
their borders,
and that the
US, France and
UK
have colonies
"scattered
around the
world."
(c) UN Photo
Ja'afari
in the
Council,
previously,
not shown are
Roma much less
Sinti
The vote is
scheduled for
November 22,
and a major
proponent late
Monday told
Inner City
Press that
"ninety five
[votes for]
would be a
good
showing."Watch
this site.
Footnote:
comparing
votes on two
country
specific
resolutions
earlier on
Monday
-- that on
DPRK or North
Korea and that
on Iran, one
finds for
example that
Qatar
abstained on
DPRK, but
voted "no" on
--
that is, for
-- Iran. The
same was true
of Sri Lanka.
One well
placed
wag out in the
North Lawn
hall said that
North Korea
has alienated
many more
countries,
causing
problems
"across
borders."
Another said
that North
Korea unlike
Iran has
"nothing to
offer,
nothing to
trade." Iran
did sell
weapons to Sri
Lanka. How
will
this play out
on the Syria
vote? We'll
see.
, 
