UK's
SC
Month Featured
17 Stakeouts,
Tiffs With
Syria, Zim
& Libya
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 28 --
The UK's month
as President
of the UN
Security
Council
President had
more
question-and-answer
stakeouts than
is the
norm, 17 with
a possible
18th
on Yemen.
The UK's month
also more
emergency
meetings than
usual --
the craziest
August in one
staffer's 30
years at the
UN, he told
Inner City
Press -- and,
uniquely, a
presentation
of Hamlet in
the
Trusteeship
Council
Chamber.
The
UK's end of
presidency
reception,
overlooking
the FDR Drive
and East
River on
August 28,
features
discussion of
Ukraine, Syria
and US
President
Barack Obama's
tan suit
earlier in the
day, and
diplomats'
tension for
the upcoming
General
Assembly
ministerial
week.
Hours
before,
Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
said in the
Council
chamber
that while the
UK's month had
many things
“not correct,”
they had
worked hard.
The latter was
indisputable.
When Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant couldn't
summarize a
consultation
or
read out a
Press
Statement at
the stakeout,
his deputy
Peter Wilson
did. They took
questions,
they sent out
transcripts of
what was asked
and answered.
The
UK considers
itself a
leader on
Darfur, but as
its month atop
the
Council ends
it is still
not clear if
cover-ups by
the UNAMID
mission
won't
continue. The
issue wasn't
sufficiently
addressed, it
seems, in
the mandate
renewal
resolution the
UK shepherded
through.
There
were a few
kerfufels in
the chamber:
not only
Syrian
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari being
cut off while
speaking, of
which
the UK might
be proud, but
a speeding
along of
Zimbabwe and a
failure
to seat
Libya's
Ibrahim
Dabbashi at
the Council
table before
voting
on the
Council's
Libya
resolution,
for both of
which the UK
apologized.
(The Libya
apology was
delivered
on-camera by
Lyall Grant;
the Zimbabwe
apology was
amplified
off-camera by
his deputy
Peter Wilson,
who did four
of the 17
stakeouts.)
What
role did the
UK and its
envoy Jonathan
Powell play in
the switch in
UN envoy from
Tarek Mitri to
Bernardino
Leon? Inner
City Press
would
still like to
know. But
spokesperson
Iona Thomas
provided
comment on
issues ranging
from freedom
of the press
in Somalia to
#BringBackOurGirls
in Nigeria.
The
UK ran a
hybrid Council
trip to
Europe, South
Sudan and
Somalia; from
Inner City
Press' and the
Free UN
Coalition's
perspective,
there
could have
been more
follow up on
the troubling
crackdown on
reporters in
South Sudan,
including most
recently even
a staffer of
UNMISS public
affairs.
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