As
Homs Is Bombed As Syria
Talks Begin, UN Continues 2-Tier
Exclusion of Press, As in NY
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 25 – The Syria talks
known as Geneva IV are off to
a rocky start, to say the
least, with suicide bombings
in Homs killing 42 people. The
UN in Geneva claimed to set up
a stakeout for the Syrian
government delegation to
speak, but journalists
complained. The news trickled
out, of Bashar Ja'afari speaking
of the attacks, while de Mistura
was still wanly quoted about
the ceasefire "holding."
Amid the
chaos, the UN made a point of
telling those with "temporary
accreditation" that they could
not get into the building
after 7 pm, even with a
stakeout scheduled for 6:30
pm. The Free
UN Coalition for Access
(FUNCA)
objects to the UN's two-tier
system for correspondents,
which in New York meant for
example that Inner City Press
which covered Peru's
President's meeting with Antonio
Guterres was Banned from the
area of the UN where he spoke
to the media afterward. (But
see this
Periscope). Ban
Censorship in 2017.
Even before
February 25, multiple UN
sources sounded a dissonant
note to Inner City Press.
As
exclusively reported
February 2, the sources had
told Inner City Press that de
Mistura is in fact angling to
replace Helen Clark atop the
UN Development Program or
UNDP. (The UN Spokesperson's
office, as usual, is in
untransparent denial mode.
Also in the mix are, among
others, David Miliband).
Now Inner
City Press is hearing from its
sources that seeking to
replace de Mistura as UN Syria
envoy is Sigrid Kaag, long
time envoy in Lebanon. (We'd
ask Kaag to confirm or deny,
but it turns out Kaag blocks
Inner City Press on Twitter, click
here to view: strange,
for a publicly paid UN
official.) We'll have more on
this.
On
February 8, Izvestia
quoting Ilian
Masaad and MP
Mohamed Khair
al-Akkam
reported that
"de
Mistura may hand in his
resignation letter soon... The
final decision will be made
after another round of
intra-Syrian talks in
Switzerland’s Geneva due on
February 20. De Mistura was
appointed by former UN chief
Ban Ki-moon, and the new UN
Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres has to decide on the
organization’s format of
dealing with the Syrian
settlement. Former deputy UN
chief Sergey Ordzhonikidze,
who personally knows de
Mistura, told the paper that
the issue on replacing the UN
envoy is indeed long overdue.
'Staffan de Mistura failed to
show his worth in this office.
By the way, I’m sure that the
Syrian conflict is very
important and the
Secretary-General should deal
with this issue himself.'"
So might
Guterres, for that reason or
others, support de Mistura for
this other UN system post?
Watch this site.
As to UNDP,
Inner City Press last month reported
on Clark stepping down,
reviewed candidates from the
UK's David Miliband to
France's Segolene Royal, and asked
the UN's holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric to describe
the process. He
declined.
(Inner City
Press on February 3 published
a story about UN
turn-over and transition based
not on Dujarric's non-answers,
but just published UN vacancy
announcements.)
Now
multiple independent sources
tell Inner City Press that de
Mistura wants the position,
has lobbied some member states
about it, including after
anger at him was expressed at
a recent meeting of the Syrian
opposition.
But what
message would it send, de
Mistura campaigning for a
different UN post at this
time? Watch this site.
When de Mistura
took questions on January 31,
Inner City Press asked him
among other things if the
Trump administration's
proposal for safe zones in
Syria (and Yemen) had been
discussed. Video here.
No, de
Mistura said, new US
Ambassador to the UN Nikki
Haley hadn't raised it. Some
wondered if that reflects the
irrelevance to which the UN
sank under Ban Ki-moon. We'll
see.
When Russia's Ambassador to the
UN Vitaly Churkin announced on
Friday December 30 that he hoped
for a unanimous vote on New
Year's Eve at 11 am on a
resolution endorsing his
country's and Turkey's ceasefire
plan in Syria, Inner City Press
asked him which groups are
included. Video
here.
But at 11 am, Churkin
said other Council members are
difficult, and said they might
not vote until "tonight" - New
Year's Eve. Journalists laughed,
nervously.
The Ambassador of New
Zealand, leaving the Security
Council later in the day after a
two year term, said
clarification is needed as to
what is exempt from the
ceasefire -- all of Idlib? --
and that there's a problem with
endorsing. Video
here.
But after language was changed
to welcoming with some other
amendments, final
version Tweeted here, the
Security Council members
returned at 1 pm and adopted the
resolution. Afterward for the US
Mission to the UN Deputy
Ambassador Michele
Sison, not Samantha Power,
gave a speech of skepticism,
as did the UK's Peter Wilson.
There were no right of reply,
and the Syrian delegation did
not speak.
After the meeting
came the ritual changing of the
flags. New Zealand, for one,
watched its being removed. The
delegations of Bolivia,
including Permanent
Representative Sasha Llorenti,
and of Kazakhstan
took photos with their flags. Video here.
***
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