As
France
"Grandstands"
On Syria and
Pillay,
Russia's
Rocket Poem
Response
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 8 --
Charging
France with
"grandstanding"
on getting
a briefing
about Syria in
the Security
Council by
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights Navi
Pillay,
several
Council
members
told Inner
City Press on
Thursday
afternoon that
French
Ambassador
Araud was
"ridiculous"
and "more
concerned with
bragging to
the media than
getting
anything
done."
The
Security
Council
President for
the month,
Russia's
Vitaly
Churkin, took
a more
diplomatic
approach. He
emerged
Thursday
afternoon from
the Council
and told Inner
City Press, "I
want to make a
statement."
He
said, "in
some science
fiction, there
was this
little poem.
It is
difficult to
translate
poems from
Russian into
English but it
went something
like
this: this
morning a
rocket was
launched. It
is flying
sixteen times
the speed of
light so it
will reach its
destination at
6 pm...
yesterday."
Amid
laughter,
Inner City
Press asked to
be sure this
was a
reference to
the threat
of a
procedural
vote to get
Pillay to
speak.
Churkin nodded
and said,
"before
anything
happened they
spread the
rumor that
Russia and
China were
against, and
they start
writing that
Russia and
China are
against it. We
almost had a
deal on how to
do it. The
usual culprits
were as usual
all confused
about things."
(c) UN Photo
Churkin
with cosmonaut
Oleg Kotov,
France's
rocketman not
shown
Asked
if Pillay's
briefing will
be Monday or
Tuesday,
CHurkin
laughed and
said, I don't
want to be
faster than
the speed of
light." Watch
this site.
, 
