At
Togo's
Reception,
Invites to
Baku &
Lome, Maldives
Props for not
Defecting
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 28 --
When Togo did
its End of
Presidency of
the
Security
Council
reception
Tuesday night
in the tents
behind the
UN's
North Lawn
building, many
didn't know
what to
expect, as
they hadn't
at the month's
beginning.
But
the
reception, at
least, was
nearly
unanimously a
smash hit. In
a
tent with
heaters
fronting the
East River,
with oysters
and carved
meats and
champagne, the
Permanent
Representatives
of the UK and
France, Israel
and Jamaica,
Sri Lanka and
South Africa,
Colombia,
Eritrea,
Somalia, Cote
d'Ivoire,
Afghanistan
and
Azerbaijan,
just to
name a few,
mingled under
the tent.
Inner
City
Press asked
Jamaica's able
Permanent
Representative
when the
monument for
the
Transatlantic
slave trade
will go up.
2014 was the
answer, and
out in front
of the UN
above the
garage.
UK Deputy
Parham was
appropriately,
given the
history, hit
up for 20,000
pounds, and
New Zealand to
at least match
Australia's
pledge before
Rudd left.
On
the
topic of
Tuesday
afternoon's
Council
consultations,
the trips for
the rest of
2012,
Azerbaijan's
Permanent
Representative
clarified to
Inner City
Press he was
asking for a
"stop over in
Baku,"
with
hospitality,
if the Council
visits Kabul.
Likewise
the
Togolese hosts
would like a
visit to Lome,
if the Council
goes to
Cote d'Ivoire.
Ambassador
Bamba, always
open, told
Inner City
Press
that while the
Ouattara
government was
penned up in
the Golf
Hotel,
they held
cabinet
meetings in a
tent not
unlike this.
Israel's
Ambassador
Prosor called
his Colombian
colleague
over: why had
Osorio
delivered
the invitation
of the Non
Aligned
Movement to
Palestine?
It's
Osorio's job.
Likewise
it was said to
be the
job of Sri
Lanka's
Permanent
Representative
Palitha Kohona
to push
his country's
cause. Inner
City Press
requested an
interview with
his Deputy
Shavendra
Silva, which
was always
possible in
the past.
"Hablando
se entiende,"
as they say in
Spanish --
speaking,
people can
understand
each other's
positions, if
not agree
with them.
The
substantive
discussions,
which must
remain without
attribution,
concerned
whether it was
right for
example that
Gbagbo's
diplomats
were stripped
of their
credentials.
The consensus
was that it
wasn't
right, but
might makes
right. Will it
happen to
Syria? Only
time under the
new chief of
UN Protocol
will
tell.
Inside the UN
(Aramark?)
tent on Feb 28
(c) MRLee
On
Maldives,
according to a
neighbor, both
the Permanent
Representative
then his
Deputy
resigned: they
had come to
represent one
government,
and wouldn't
just flit to
the next. This
was a position
with which
others could
agree. But it
was all
off-record, as
is so often at
the
UN. So too the
talk of who
will get which
post: more on
which anon.
Watch this
site.
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